For Cubs, LeMahieu is one that got away — again originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
How is it that a guy the Cubs moved on from nearly a decade ago just keeps looming bigger and bigger the longer he’s been gone?
On Friday you could count the ways — all the way to 90 million — with news the Yankees are re-signing second baseman DJ LeMahieu to a six-year deal after two stellar seasons with the club.
For the Cubs, consider it just one more time LeMahieu became the one that got away. For a third time.
Talk about counting the ways.
“Whenever we play them, I just try to beat them,” LeMahieu told Gordon Wittenmyer about the Cubs in July 2013. “Ever since they traded me, it’s been a team that gives me extra motivation. I don’t know if it’s called a wake-up call. But I know for me it’s extra motivation. And it's helped me out."
Those comments came nearly two years after one of Theo Epstein’s worst trades as Cubs team president. Epstein and Co. were down on LeMahieu’s lack of pull power and, two months into their Chicago tenure, included the 2009 second-round pick in a trade package for Rockies third baseman Ian Stewart, viewed as a bounce back candidate.
Stewart flopped with the Cubs, but LeMahieu blossomed in Colorado, winning three Gold Gloves and making two All-Star teams from 2014-18. He won the NL batting title in 2016 and hit .299 in seven seasons with the Rockies.
LeMahieu hit the open market after the 2018 season — the same season Epstein declared the Cubs offense “broke” somewhere along the way. He signed a two-year, $24 million deal with the Yankees, while the Cubs — up against the luxury tax — added Daniel Descalso on a modest two-year deal.
In two seasons with the Yankees, LeMahieu has hit .336/.386/.536. He won another batting title in 2020, finishing third in AL MVP voting.
LeMahieu has clearly gone on to bigger and better things and doesn’t think about the Cubs. If anything, it’s the other way around. The longer he’s been gone, the more apparent his loss has been to the Cubs.
That might not be any clearer than during this winter of cost-cutting, hard decisions and roster upheaval on the North Side. Not having LeMahieu has never been bigger than now because of what the Cubs are going through and what their needs are, down to how affordable his extension is.
The Cubs are looking for more contact-oriented bats, and LeMahieu is one of the best hitters in the game. His new six-year deal holds an average annual value of $15 million.
If the Cubs hadn’t traded LeMahieu, there’s no reason to think they couldn’t have kept him long-term, assuming he was happy. He’s shown a willingness to sign extensions that current Cubs haven’t. Since Epstein and Jed Hoyer arrived in Chicago, the only hitters to sign extensions are Starlin Castro (2012), Anthony Rizzo (2013) and David Bote (2019).
Even though it felt like LeMahieu was bound to return to the Yankees this offseason, his new deal is the latest reminder of what could have been in Chicago.
Another reminder that he's the one that got away.
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