Trade deadline ends emotional journey for Cubs’ core, fanbase

WASHINGTON – The emotions of Cubs fans all across the country have been over the last 48 hours as the team broke up the core that brought the team’s first World Series title in 108 years. But even after the trades of Javy Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo broke up the team’s superstar trio, there’s no denying the legacy that they helped build.

Which also makes it harder for those who helped build that legacy and helped create those championship expectations over the last seven years to watch it come to an end.

“It’s been a lot,” Baez said on Friday after his trade to the Mets. “I think with [Anthony] being the first one that got traded, I think he was the hardest one to say goodbye to. It’s still hard to say bye to the boys and to the organization.”

Baez, Bryant and Rizzo each brought something to the organization as it turned from being one of baseball’s worst to one of its most emulated.

“I couldn’t be more proud of what we built,” president Jed Hoyer said. “It was really difficult to have those conversations.”

Baez had been in the organization for 11 years after being drafted by the Cubs in 2011 and while he was an inherited piece to Hoyer and Theo Epstein’s core, he became one of their most important players during the team’s window.

Rizzo was the player the Cubs identified as the centerpiece of their championship roster when the Hoyer/Epstein regime came over in 2012 and was the team’s vocal leader until his departure on Thursday.

“I remember sitting with his parents in a suite in Boston when he was diagnosed with cancer,” Hoyer said. “I remember hearing his voice when I was in San Diego and I traded for him. … I’ve been with him forever.”

Bryant was one of the final pieces of the core and accomplished more in his seven seasons with the Cubs than some players accumulate in a 15-year career. David Ross has watched all three players as both their teammate and their manager and seeing them walk out the door was not an easy task.

“Emotional,” Ross said. “Emotional is the first word that comes to mind. Sad. Difficult. A lot of negative words that I usually don’t like to use. … Outside of the manager’s side, I feel like I’m losing some friends and I think that’s difficult.

“I’m happy for them. … They get a chance to go to some teams that are in the hunt chasing championships and they’re very good at that.”

The Cubs’ three now-former superstars will now each go to pennant races with Rizzo with the Yankees, Bryant with the Giants and Baez with the Mets.

But before Baez joined his new team in New York, Baez didn’t want to leave without acknowledging the fans that cheered him on since he was an 18-year-old.

“Just want to let you guys know that we love you,” Baez said. “We know the dedication that you guys give to the sports in Chicago and what it means to the city. I never thought it was gonna be this big and when we won the World Series in 2016, the city was just going crazy and the happiness around it was amazing. I didn’t really grow up in a big city following a team, so when I saw that here, it was pretty incredible.”