I will want to see the full context around his comments because I have only the tweets at the moment, but given the tenor of things from earlier this week, I was pretty shocked to see such affirmative statements today from Cubs President Jed Hoyer.
He says he believes an extension will get done with Anthony Rizzo eventually:
Jed Hoyer said he is "very confident" Cubs will be able to work out an extension with Anthony Rizzo at some point.
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) March 31, 2021
Hoyer is still "very confident" the Cubs and Rizzo will reach a contract extension agreement. He says the timing doesn't matter to him, the door remains open even with Rizzo's deadline.
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) March 31, 2021
Chicago #Cubs president Jed Hoyer says he's "very confident'' that they will reach a contract agreement with Anthony Rizzo and that he'll be with the Cubs past this season.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 31, 2021
Moreover, Hoyer may have implied that things aren’t quite as dire as the single number that’s been put out there made things seem:
"I want him playing first base for the Chicago Cubs for a long time." –Jed Hoyer, on Anthony Rizzo
Emphasized that there's been "dozens" of conversations, and says there's a danger in having "one data point" out in the public sphere. Hopes the sides can work something out.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) March 31, 2021
Rizzo indicated this week that he was not confident a deal would get done, and set a cut-off for talks at Opening Day (which is tomorrow). Moreover, it was reported that the Cubs’ opening offer to Rizzo was a surprisingly low five-years and $70 million. It wasn’t hard to believe things were in a very bad spot at that point with the face of the franchise entering his walk year.
But maybe we now have renewed reason for hope? Like I said, I kinda want to see more of the context surrounding Hoyer’s comments, but it seems he was trying to express to the fans that the Cubs of course want to extend Rizzo, and a belief that it very much still could happen.
And there was probably a way to say that without being QUITE so bold. All I can say is that there is CONSIDERABLE risk in saying you’re “very confident” a deal will get done with Rizzo unless you’re pretty darn sure you can get to a number that works. Because now, if you still don’t get a deal done, it’s all the more exasperating. So … yay? Hopefulness?