Cubs Will Still Be Big Spenders

Many Cubs fans may hate to hear this, but, the Cubs will never enter a complete “re-building” phase with their organization. There have been plenty indications from not only Jim Hendry and Tom Ricketts, but baseball insiders as well that the Cubs will remain one of the biggest spending teams in the league.

As we go through the first year of the Ricketts regime, one thing to remember, as Bruce Levine did in his chat yesterday, is that the Chicago Cubs want to emulate the success that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have had over the past few seasons. While both teams have installed “home grown” players, they also remained big spenders through free agency, and trades. Which has boosted both organizations to a point where they are essentially a lock every to contend for the World Series.

That is the type of organization that the Chicago Cubs have to be. The fact of the matter is, that the Cubs will continue to shell out money and chase the top free agents. Seeing as they are a big money teams in one of the biggest markets that is Chicago. Only, I would expect the Cubs to be smarter with who they give their money to. They probably will not make the same mistake that they made with players like Alfonso Soriano, and give them the big money, even though they might not be worth it. Instead, as Bruce Levine mentioned, you will see the Cubs make a run at players like Cliff Lee. Players that are fundamentally sound for winning a championship.

Another thing that the Cubs need to stop doing, is handing out no trade clauses and player options. The Cubs from that standpoint have really been taken advantage of. Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Kosuke Fukudome, Ted Lilly, and Carlos Zambrano are all players that have either opt clauses, or no trade clauses in their contracts. Which is why in year the Cubs are looking to create more flexibility, it will be hard to do given those special circumstances.

As a fan, I would rather have the Chicago Cubs spend the money to bring in the top players, instead of just keeping within their system. History has proven, that usually the team with the most money will win the championships, over teams like the Twins and Braves who decided to stay within their organizations. Fans may hate to see a team “buy” the championship, but when a team has not won the World Series in over 100 years, anything is fair game.