Chicago Cubs: Signing Bryce Harper, Manny Machado could handicap team

Contrary to popular belief, throwing lucrative contracts at high-profile players won’t guarantee the Chicago Cubs a return to the World Series in 2019.

Even as I start to write this piece, I’m already pretty confident what type of reactions I’ll get on social media from Chicago Cubs fans.

“Didn’t you see the offense in the second half?”

“We need guys who can actually hit – they cost money!”

“Why don’t you just keep your opinions to yourself?”

You get the idea.

With last week’s Wild Card game loss still fresh in my mind (very fresh, as I sat in the stands at Wrigley for all 13 painstaking innings), I remain unconvinced that signing Manny Machado or Bryce Harper to a mega-deal is the answer to the Cubs’ offensive woes.

That’s not to say I think this team is championship-caliber, because I don’t. In fact, before Colorado and Chicago played a single out of the Wild Card game, I had already thrown all my eggs in the American League basket. And I stand there even today.

Had the Cubs somehow, miraculously, pulled off a National League pennant, the Houston Astros or Boston Red Sox would have massacred Joe Maddon‘s club. And, whether you like it or not, one player wouldn’t have changed that fact – not even Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.