You can find a defensive first baseman pretty cheap in FA. If rizzo will get you a prospect or two, you do it. By the time the cubs are competing again, rizzo won’t be a factor anymore. It would be dumb to sell off and keep rizzo. Not to mention it’d be nice to send rizzo to a competitor for him in his last few years
I mean maybe... like i said it would depend on the return. Giving rizzo like $20 mil a year isn't really much of a concern if you are blowing it up because you're not gonna run huge salaries the next few years. But I honestly don't think teams are going to pay anything more than low ceiling prospects for rizzo headed into FA and the cubs have enough prospect depth that it isn't an issue. The issue is the cubs lack higher ceiling guys who can break out if the ball bounces right.
People also undervalue what leadership brings. If you're rebuilding you are bringing in players to flip. Having a captain who can help squeeze the most out of minimally talented players is a case where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. I recently was watching a documentary about Dave Parker. They were interviewing Barry Larkin and talking about what Parker meant to his development. At the time he wasn't really as focused as he should be and Parker basically told him fix it or he was going to beat the shit out of him. Larkin praised Parker so much so that he is one of the people Larkin mentioned in his HOF speech.
As such, Rizzo is the type of player I want on the team when these younger guys come up especially if the cubs are in a rebuild mode because Rizzo was a prospect in that very environment. Being able to guide young guys will be important
