Supposedly, he wants 9 figures - or thats his starting spot. Not sure if that is 5 or 6 years. Would assume his agent starts off at the Goldy number, but he will never get that in this post pandemic market. I think 6/$100 with a bunch of incentives in the later years would get it done, but sounds like the Cubs starting offer was 5/$60 and only moved to 5/$70 after negotiations. For a face of the franchise guy, I would hate to lose him, but his comments over the last couple of days sound more like he is gone - he mentioned how his mentor, Lester, had historic runs with 2 different franchises.
With only Hendricks, JHey and Bote under contract next year, 4 guys with team options (Jake, Joc, Marisnick, Chafin) and only 6 arb guys (Contreras, Happ, Mills, Williams, Adam and Wick) - the Cubs will have a ton of room next year to do what they want. Of the options, Joc seems possible, but I dont remember if it was club or player option - Jake maybe if he is back - the other two are no's. I don't see how a front loaded deal with Rizzo doesn't make a ton of sense for a gold glove 1B, all around good guy and leader.
Cubs are playing a tough game here, and as things go into the season, seems less and less likely they get what they want (team friendly long term deals) because either the team sucks and they trade them or the team is doing well and the player explodes and wouldn't accept a low ball offer anyway. Really was hoping they tried to sign Davies to a Hendricks type deal - he looked lights out in spring training and having two solid innings eaters at $10 million-ish at or near the top of the rotation would be great.