It's gotta Happ-en

The Cubs spent the second half of the regular season and all of the postseason proving that while they're pretty good they aren't good enough to win anything that matters. Their offense wilted in the summer heat and never recovered, and their starting pitching turned out to be too thin, even with a great second half from rookie Cade Horton.

They figure to basically run back almost the same team, with the overwhelmingly likely exception of Kyle Tucker (their best hitter) and possibly Shōta Imanaga (who has an exceedingly friendly team contract, but any money is too much money for the tastes of the Garbage Family The Owns the Cubs.™)

So, how do you improve from a disappointing 92 wins if you don't improve your roster?

Well, you don't.

It will take a bold move to make any kind of tangible difference. Incredibly, Jed Hoyer surprised us each of the last two years by making one of those. He fired David Ross in 2023 and hired a real manager. And last winter he traded for Tucker. The problem is that he didn't do anything else either year.

Re-signing your best player should not be considered a bold move. It should be something you just do.

Kyle Tucker's lousy second half, coupled with his second straight injury plagued season has surely lowered the upper threshold of the offers he will receive, not to mention that few teams are actually spending, and with the prospect of a work stoppage in 2027 looming, it's believed even fewer teams than normal will be willing to spend.

All of this should work to the Cubs advantage, but they show no inkling of even wanting it to happen.

The Cubs ranked tenth in baseball this year in payroll with $206 million in actual payroll paid, and $227 million in luxury tax payroll. They stayed under the precious luxury tax threshold this year, so they will pay no luxury tax next season.

When the offseason starts after the World Series, the Cubs will have the 13th most payroll committed for 2026 at just $135 million. They have just $32 million committed for 2027 (22nd) and only $27 million for 2o28.

There is nothing stopping them from spending a lot of money, other than the fact that they just don't want to.

Remember that every time the Dodgers' defer money to sign another star and the Bleacher Nation guys act like they're cheating. The Cubs don't defer money anymore because they don't want to, not because it isn't a sound business practice.

So, when the Cubs let Tucker leave and just move Seiya Suzuki back to right field so that Owen Caissie and/or Moises Ballesteros can become the DH, they aren't doing it because they can't afford it. But they also can't defend it as making any baseball sense.

If you can afford to do something to dramatically improve your team but you just decide not to, what is that?

It's being assholes, is what it is.

But what if they could cut their payroll even more next year and then re-sign Tucker?