Photo Credit: The West End (Flickr CC)
The National League Central, like most MLB divisions, has always featured a mix of big-spending and small-spending teams. It’s rare in recent memory, however, for one of the less active teams to be the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs have averaged almost 97 wins over the last four seasons, made four consecutive playoff appearances and won a World Series. Their brief postseason run in 2018 overshadowed another successful season, albeit one that featured some ups and downs: They were 16-15 on May 6, then had consecutive stretches where they went 22-10, 5-10 and 14-5 before leveling off a bit.
The Cubs return nearly all of the key contributors from that team, including 2017 NL MVP Kris Bryant, 2018 NL MVP runner-up Javier Baez, pitchers Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester and much more. This was a Cubs team with the resources and opportunity to come into the winter and use their financial advantage to make a statement, firmly establishing themselves as the NL Central favorites and making a case to be the best team in baseball. For some reason, perhaps to the relief of the NL’s other contenders, to this point they’ve decided not to.
The Cubs have never been seriously discussed as candidates to sign top free agents Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, although there would be clear paths to playing time for either in Chicago. But the Cubs’ thrifty ways have extended past their decision not to spend on the winter’s priciest targets. They’ve opted out of the market to this point on nearly everyone.
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On Friday the Associated Press published a preview of the NL Central identifying top newcomers and departures from each team in the division. They had to dig pretty deep to find this list of five new Cubs:
- 32-year-old utility infielder Daniel Descalso, coming off the most valuable season of his nine-year MLB career with 1.1 wins above replacement (per Baseball Reference) in 2018. He signed for two years and $5 million.
- Reliever Brad Brach, who will turn 33 in April. He was a 2016 All Star and had a nice stretch run with the Braves in 2018 but was available on a one-year deal worth $4.35 million.
- 35-year-old reliever Tony Barnette, who pitched just 22 games for the Rangers in 2018 and signed for $750,000 plus incentives.
- 33-year-old journeyman reliever George Kontos, signed to a minor league contract.
- 32-year-old former Red Sox and Marlins reliever Junichi Tazawa, also signed on a minor league deal.
Even if all five of these players make the Cubs they’ll combine to make about half of what the Brewers are paying Yasmani Grandal alone in 2019. As a team that has typically been willing to open their checkbook, the Cubs’ inactivity this winter could be part of the reason several of the top free agents have had a hard time finding teams.
The Cubs, for their part, could point out that many of their past large expenditures are still on the books for 2019. They exercised Cole Hamels’ 2019 option at $20 million and owe $12 million or more to Jon Lester (almost $26 million), Jason Heyward (signed through 2023 at over $20 million/year), Yu Darvish (also signed through 2023 at over $20 million/year), Kris Bryant, Tyler Chatwood and Ben Zobrist. Cot’s Contracts projects their Opening Day payroll at $208 million, which would be a franchise record, and estimates they’ll be about $20 million over the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. They stayed just under the threshold in 2018.
“We like our club, and we’re among the very top spenders. I think all that stuff (about not spending) is kind of misguided,” team chairman Tom Ricketts told WSCR AM-670 in January, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune.
Nonetheless, as one of baseball’s premier organizations, a club that has experienced recent success and a business getting ready to launch its own TV network in 2020, it’s fair to wonder why the Cubs have passed on opportunities this winter to improve their roster. The fact that one of baseball’s most successful franchises appears content to sit on their checkbook won’t help the somewhat strained relationship between players and owners, or the Cubs and their fans.
