Chicago Cubs: Reasons to believe the Cubs will land Bryce Harper

Fear not, Chicago Cubs faithful. There is still cause for optimism when it comes to the team’s very quiet, maybe imaginary pursuit of free agent Bryce Harper.

After years of Bryce Harper subversively suggesting that he might sign with the Chicago Cubs, he is a free agent at long last. Except things aren’t playing out as planned. Instead of readying the number 34 jerseys with ‘HARPER’ across the back, rumors are suggesting a very different idea.

That idea? The Cubs lack the financial assets to land the highly coveted outfielder.

But as the offseason has progressed there have been some signs that the stars might align for Harper to call Wrigley Field home – at least to some degree – moving forward.

Despite what might be a smaller payroll than was once expected for 2019, “the Ricketts family (owners of the Chicago Cubs) has signed off on the possibility of a big expenditure for a star like Harper,” according to Bruce Levine.

That could be gigantic. That could mean the front office was told going into this offseason that they have to keep player salaries below X amount. Then, the front office told the Ricketts family that X means that they won’t be able to sign Harper. The Ricketts family might have come back and then said, you can go over X specifically to get Harper.