Be the change you want to see in the Cubs
Did our incessant complaining spur the Cubs to action? Let's agree to pretend it did.



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The Cubs teams since they won the 2016 World Series have had a couple of things in common. They haven’t won anything, and their roster construction has become increasingly risk averse.
It’s almost like since the Garbage Family That Owns The Cubs™ won the World Series that they decided there was no reason to spend what it would take to build a team that good again.
Huh.
It’s easy to say that the Ricketts don’t want to win. But that wouldn’t be accurate. I’m sure they want to win. They just don’t want it enough.
The funny thing is that over the last couple of years when the Cubs were back to trying to compete only to field mediocre teams that both topped out at a whopping 83 wins, they spent $230 million and $237 million on those rosters. They weren’t even good at trying to win on the cheap. That’s way too much to spend on 83 win teams.
From there you have two ways to go. You can either slash your payroll and try to win that many games with a roster that costs $150 million like the Twins who made the playoffs once or the D’bags who actually won the pennant in 2023. The problem is that the best you can really expect in that case is to be the Brewers, who make the playoffs and then don’t win playoff games.
Your other alternative is that you can keep on spending and try to push yourself over the hump.
The Cubs went into this offseason with what looked like a plan to do neither. And maybe it still is that way.
But, with one trade they parted with inexpensive long term assets to get the thing they were lacking the most.
A star.
Time will tell whether the Cubs actually pony up and spend the obscene amount of money it will take next offseason to keep that star, outfielder Kyle Tucker. And their current efforts to trade Cody Bellinger for mainly the sole reason that they don’t want to pay them feels like a pretty big clue. But if the Cubs are comfortable spending around $240 million like they have the last two years and will likely spend again this year, they certainly should be able to find a way to pay Tucker the $40 million a year he’ll clearly be able to demand and continue to stick in that payroll range.
And if you want an early clue about how serious the Cubs are in re-signing Tucker long term, we’ll find out at the press conference.