The Chicago Cubs held a fire sale ahead of Friday’s MLB trade deadline, dealing away several key players who helped the team win a World Series five years ago. While Jed Hoyer says he had Chicago's best interests in mind, Kris Bryant praised the Cubs executive for trying to make life better for those he traded away.
Bryant spoke with the media on Sunday before his first game as a member of the San Francisco Giants. He praised Hoyer for having his and his former teammates’ best interests in mind when trading them. Bryant noted how Hoyer traded him closer to where he grew up in Las Vegas. He also said the Cubs factored in that reliever Craig Kimbrel’s daughter has a heart condition, so they sent him to the cross-town rival White Sox so he wouldn’t have to move.
And that’s not all. Bryant says shortstop Javier Baez is happy to be joining his close friend Francisco Lindor with the New York Mets. First baseman Anthony Rizzo, who is from New York, now gets to play for the Yankees.
It would be naive to think Hoyer took lesser offers to accommodate all of the aforementioned players, but it definitely sounds like he made an effort to put them in favorable situations. That goes a long way with players and should help the Cubs when they’re trying to recruit top talent in the future.
Bryant was very emotional in the dugout after being traded, but it sounds like he’s making the most of it.
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