For the last few years, the conversation regarding the most valuable Chicago Cubs started and pretty much ended with Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. While “Team Bryzzo” will no doubt be cornerstones of this franchise through this current window of contention, they are no longer the most indispensable members of the team.
If the ups and downs of 2018 have taught us nothing else, it is that Javier Baez has supplanted those two as not necessarily the best player on the team, (although he has been this year) but the one who is the most indispensable and fundamental to the success of the franchise going forward.