Cubs reach extension agreement with Nico Hoerner: Report
MESA, Ariz. – The Cubs are leaving spring training with one contract extension at the finish line.
Second baseman Nico Hoerner agreed to a three-year, $35 million extension, ESPN reported Monday. The deal runs through Hoerner’s remaining two years of arbitration eligibility and one year of free agency.
“The financial side of the game is a deeply personal thing,” Hoerner told the Sun-times earlier this spring. “Whether it means signing something right at the beginning of your career, or before free agency, or waiting till free agency and getting every possible dollar, all those things are very individual choices.”
Hoerner, who the Cubs drafted out of Stanford in 2018 with the No. 24 overall pick, has developed into a well balanced player and a young leader in the clubhouse.
“He’s a mature human being outside of his baseball experience,” manager David Ross said last season. “And then you take that his work ethic, his mindset, his baseball IQ, and you put that into a championship-type team that was on its way to the playoffs when he first got thrown into the mix.”
Hoerner was fast-tracked to the big-leagues because of injuries on the major-league roster late in 2019. The next year was shortened by the pandemic, and a series of injuries in 2021 kept him off the field for stretches.
Last year, Hoerner surpassed the 50-game mark for the first time in his career, and serving as the Cubs’ everyday shortstop, he thrived. He hit .281 with 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases. In the field, he was tied for No. 2 in outs above average (13) among MLB shortstops, trailing only Dansby Swanson (20).
Hoerner’s extension adds one more year to the Hoerner-Swanson up-the-middle combo that’s become a defining characteristic of the Cubs’ run-prevention identity since the team signed Swanson to a seven-year deal this past offseason.
Hoerner’s deal runs through his year-29 season, giving him the chance to still hit free agency around his peak years.
The Cubs also opened extension talks with left fielder Ian Happ this offseason, but the two parties don’t appear close to an agreement.