That's nice, Cubs. But you need a lot more.

Overnight the Cubs finalized a four-year, $68 million deal with middle o’ the rotation starter Jameson Taillon, and you know what? That’s fine.

Taillon, a two-time Tommy John Disease survivor and one time testicular cancer survivor has been a just above league average pitcher for his career, and he made 61 starts over the past two seasons and the Cubs have nobody who has done that.

That was combined with the signing of Cody Bellinger yesterday and the Cubs are back, baby! Whoo!

I'm sure the Cubs will fix him

It’s only money. That was the immediate reaction of Cubs fans and pundits to the news that the team has plugged its eternally gaping hole in center field with a 27-year-old former NL Rookie of the Year, MVP, Gold Glove winner, Silver Slugger and two-time All-Star. So what’s not to love?

Pointless Exercise

Are they, though?

Hopefully they have a lot more coming, because honestly, these are moves they always make. They signed a number three or four starter and a reclamation project for the offense and they’re only paying Bellinger $12 million next year with a $5.5 million buyout for 2024. So, so far, despite all of the talk and leaked optimism to our good friend Dave Kaplan, the Cubs sure look like they’re doing business as usual.

Then, early this morning, the Yankees re-sign Aaron Judge for nine years, $360 million and Cubs bloggers freak out that it dooms the Cubs pursuit of Carlos Correa because the Giants can just throw the money they had set aside for Judge at Correa.

Oh, no. You mean the Cubs would need to spend a lot of money for a great player? Huh. That seems like how it’s supposed to work.

The Cubs can act like they’re willing to splash the cash all they want, but we have to see it first, and so far, this ain’t it.

And if they lose out on Correa and Xander Bogaerts even if they do offer a lot of money, they have themselves to blame.

Great players don’t always want to play for your team. That’s why when a great player does (cough, cough Bryce Harper four years ago, cough, cough) you sign them. Because you don’t often find yourself in the lead position on these things.

Anyway, I had Taillon number 18 on my big list of the top 20 free agents.

Sorry Tom, free agents aren't actually free

Free agency has technically started, but it won’t really get going until after the November 15 qualifying offer deadline, and honestly, nobody good signs until January these days. But hey, it’s never too early to rank some free agents! For the purpose of this pointless exercise (hence, the name of the newsletter) we’ll rank the top 20 players based on who will have most impact (regardless of cost—sorry Tom)…

Pointless Exercise

Nice to see the Cubs at least dipping their toe in.

But let’s be real. So far that’s all they’ve done.

Because while this seems like a lot of money…$85 million bucks for two players, baseball money’s not real money. And they have yet to pay anybody as much as the qualifying offer per season in a deal.