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MESA, Arizona — Anthony Rizzo wants to be a lifetime Cub:
The Cubs haven’t approached Rizzo about redoing his deal to make him a Cub for life, though he hopes it happens eventually.
“We’ve been through a lot together in this organization,” he said, referring to President Theo Epstein and general manger Jed Hoyer. “We’ve seen it grow.”
I wrote here in November 2017 that I hoped the Cubs would extend Rizzo. Currently, his deal officially expires at the end of this season, though the Cubs have two team-friendly option years for 2020 and 2021 that they will almost certainly exercise.
Or, they could tear those up and just extend him beginning in 2020. I hope so. He’s the “Mr. Cub” of this generation. I want him to retire as a Cub.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Almora CF, Bote 3B, Rizzo 1B, Baez SS, Caratini C, Descalso 2B, Field LF, Marzilli RF, Rice DH
Royals lineup:
Flores 2B, Owings SS, Dozier 3B, Soler RF, Schwindel 1B, Starling DH, Bonifacio LF, Viloria C, Hamilton CF
Hey, look! There’s our old buddy Jorge Soler. And Bubba Starling... fifth overall pick in the first round in 2011, still hanging around. And... Billy Hamilton, Cub nemesis. At least whatever he does today doesn’t matter. (And no, that’s not Emilio Bonifacio. It’s Jorge Bonifacio.)
Jose Quintana will start for the Cubs. Cubs relievers on today’s schedule: Pedro Strop, Steve Cishek, Brad Brach, Tyler Chatwood and Mike Zagurski.
This will be the first spring outing for both Strop and Brach.
Heath Fillmyer will go for the Royals. Other Royals pitchers scheduled today: Michael Ynoa, Conner Greene, Josh Staumont, Drew Storen, Andres Machado and Jake Newberry.
Today’s game is on cubs.com. No TV today.
Please note that during spring training, Gameday doesn’t usually go pitch-by-pitch as it does during the regular season -- usually, it will update after each at-bat.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Please visit our SB Nation Royals site Royals Review. If you do go there to interact with Royals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.
For spring-training games, we’ll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time (because I know how you all like overflow threads!). For today, that will be 2 p.m. CT and 3:30 p.m. CT.
These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked ”Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher boxes and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.
Discuss amongst yourselves.