After the last game Anthony Rizzo played at Wrigley Field, he and his family stayed and roamed the outfield, snapping photos and adding one more memory to the trove they already had.
Rizzo leaned back into the ivy, letting the vines and brick support him, before saying goodbye.
It was the summer of 2021, on the eve of the trade deadline, and Rizzo had been informed he was heading to the Yankees, ending a decade with the Cubs that included a rebuild, three All-Star nods, five postseason appearances and a World Series title.
His trade was the first domino to fall in the 2021 sell-off. The next day, the Cubs finished disbanding their championship core, sending third baseman Kris Bryant to the Giants and shortstop Javy Baez to the Mets.
Bryant came back with the Giants that September. And just a couple of weeks ago, Báez got his curtain call, now as a member of the Tigers.
This weekend, Rizzo is set to finally play his first game at Wrigley since the trade. He returned from the 60-day injured list Sunday, just in time, after recovering from a fractured forearm.
Anticipating the reception he expects Rizzo to get from the Wrigley faithful, left fielder Ian Happ said, “I’m sure Rizzo will be right in line, if not the loudest, of that group [of players who returned]. He meant so much to his organization — to me as a young player, being right next to me [in the locker room] and everything he taught me.”
Rizzo, five years older than Happ and eight older than second baseman Nico Hoerner, came up in the league when there was a more pronounced hier-archy between rookies and veterans. At the time Rizzo stepped into a more prominent role, that dynamic had begun to shift.
“He definitely took it personally to at least make it, for me, feel like I was a part of the group,” Hoerner said. “And also, whether it was stuff at the field or away from it, he was always super open with me. I appreciated how honest he always was about how he felt. And he did it in a comical way. But when you have one of your leading players be really transparent about how they’re feeling, I think it creates a good dynamic for the group.”
Happ recalls the handshake routine former Cubs outfielder Jon Jay had with Rizzo in 2017.
“He would put the [captain’s] ‘C’ on his chest as a part of the handshake, and that was who he was to this group,” Happ said. “There were a lot of really accomplished veteran players in the room, and a lot of guys with experience that had loud voices. But it always felt, just from his time here, his experience here, everything he had been through before the winning teams, he was kind of the glue in that group.”
When Bryant, Baez and even Kyle Hendricks, the last member of the 2016 World Series team on the roster, were establishing themselves in the majors, it quickly became clear the Cubs were on the cusp of something exciting. But Rizzo’s arrival in Chicago predated all that. Acquiring him was one of the early moves by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer after they took over baseball operations entering the 2012 season.
“What [Rizzo] did in ‘16, and that group, should always be celebrated,” Hoerner said. “But [it was] especially cool that he was here from when the team was struggling all the way through a World Series championship. That’s kind of the coolest thing you can do in one place, and something that I would obviously love to do here.”
Hoerner, who last year signed a contract extension through 2026, has been through the reset years of the Cubs’ current cycle.
The next step is to make the playoffs — a goal that narrowly eluded the Cubs last year and is threatening to fall out of reach again this year, despite a strong August. This series against Rizzo and the Yankees could swing their slim chances either way.
The Cubs put Steele and Lopez on the 15-day IL on Wednesday.
Shota Imanaga spun seven no-hit innings, and relievers Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge completed the combined no-hitter. It is the first Cubs no-hitter since 2021.