Fun fact, as of Dec. 23, there are four teams that haven’t signed a single player to a fully guaranteed MLB contract this offseason. Two of those teams finished last in their respective division in 2019, the other finished in fourth and then there’s the Cubs.
For the second straight offseason Tom Ricketts has “no more money” to put into the on-field product, leaving the front office scavenging at the bottom of the barrel in free agency.
The Cubs want to re-sign Nick Castellanos, but ownership isn’t allowing the team to add more payroll before it gets rid of other salary first. The Cubs were interested in a few other low-cost, but decent additions, but again ownership can’t “afford” another $4 million on the payroll for 2020.
The Cubs are trying to add players this offseason and they have on minor league or split contracts. Are those players going to significantly improve the Cubs’ chances of returning to the playoffs? Nope. Are the Cubs even trying to get better? They’re not and at this point it’s clear that making actual big upgrades to the roster isn’t a priority for 2020.
So, time to look at more cheap options in free agency. And again that basically means signing guys who were either bad in 2019, coming off an injury in 2019 or both! Ahh, the reclamation projects.
The Cubs could use another starting pitcher, but again do they even care about competing in 2020? Doesn’t really look like it. There was a pretty good group of free agent starters and the Cubs weren’t in on any of them.
And sure, the Cubs were reportedly interested in Dallas Keuchel. Cool, story.
So, who’s left in free agency? Lots of bad.
- Homer Bailey
- Ivan Nova
- Andrew Cashner
- Jason Vargas
- Rich Hill
- Aaron Sanchez
- Matt Moore
- Jhoulys Chacín
- Alex Wood
- Shelby Miller
- Trevor Cahill
- Jimmy Nelson
The sad thing is that from that list you could probably cross out the first few names because they’ll most likely get MLB deals and once again the Cubs reportedly can’t “afford” to sign players to MLB deals right now LOL!
What a lovely offseason.
At this point just send Tyler Chatwood out there every fifth day. At least that’ll be exciting. (yes, I’ll keep being pessimistic about the Cubs until Opening Day)
