Chicago Cubs: Further free agent penalties
Another new provision in the new CBA is the price to be paid for signing a player who rejects a qualifying offer. Large market teams like the Cubs will forfeit their second- and fifth-highest draft picks. This would apply to Bryce Harper but not Manny Machado because Machado didn’t play with the Dodgers for a full season.
TV is the thing…next year
Much has been made of the looming Cubs TV deal. Except that won’t happen until after the 2019 season. How big a deal could that be? The landscape is shifting fast with cable hemorrhaging subscribers as streaming services provide more nimble programming at a lower cost. The business end of Cubs will have to be smart here.
The Cubs are one of the most viewed teams in MLB with fans all over the country. A solid TV deal could gain the Cubs billions of dollars over the next ten years, a flow of cash that could render even the more severe CBA spending restrictions mute.