Chicago Cubs: Not shoring up this core is nothing short of negligent

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Championship windows close quickly and by not supplementing the current core, the Chicago Cubs are bordering on negligence in their inactive offseason.

As a fan base, after four short years, Chicago Cubs faithful take winning for granted – right? Well, not if you take their downright outrage over the team’s lack of action this winter as evidence. Heading into Cubs Convention this weekend in downtown Chicago, the Wrigley Faithful are in an uproar – and chairman Tom Ricketts’ comments Thursday morning did little to help matters.

Ricketts talked with 670 WSCR AM on Thursday after reports surfaced online the day prior regarding his decision to not host an annual panel with ownership this weekend. Fans pretty much universally decried this move – and saw it as a cowardly decision by an owner who calls himself one of the most accessible in the game.

When asked about the matter, he tried to turn things into a joke, saying, “People would rather watch the mascot play bingo than listen to the owners speak,” – but Twitter lit him up immediately, and things really only got worse from there.

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: It’s bigger than money at this point, isn’t it?

Obviously, one of the Cubs’ biggest storylines is their pursuit of major free agents this winter – well, really, their lack thereof. In an offseason headlined by two superstar talents in their mid-20s (Bryce Harper and Manny Machado), Chicago has seemingly decided that right now is the time they’ll stop spending.

“But frankly, we have one of the largest budgets in all of baseball. We put that to work, we’ve definitely signed a lot of players over the years. We have a team that we like. We have a team that we think is going to go a long way. We have a team that won 95 games last year without a lot of help from some of the guys we picked up last offseason,” Ricketts said, “And all the different things that we fought through last year – the injuries, everyone’s having kind of down years, some of the off-field distractions…we like our club.  And we’re among the very top spenders. So, I just think all that stuff’s kind of misguided.”

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First, he’s not wrong in most of what he says here. In the last four years, Chicago has doled out significant contracts to the likes of Jon Lester, Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, Brandon Morrow, Tyler Chatwood and Yu Darvish.  The Cubs, did, in case you’ve forgotten, win 95 games. But winning 95 games means jack-diddly when you lose to the Colorado Rockies in the Wild Card game. 

Injuries? Well, two of the aforementioned big signings, Morrow and Darvish, both missed more than half the season with injuries. Speaking of those two right-handers, according to Ricketts, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein knew that if he added those two, this would be a quiet winter.

“When you make any free agent signing – not to pick on Darvish – you know you can’t spend that dollar twice, and you have to budget that into the future. So that’s going to limit what you can do the following year … One of the things we knew coming into this offseason was that we weren’t going to have as much flexibility as years past. We didn’t have big contracts coming off. We didn’t have a lot more cash coming in.”

I have a hard time believing the Cubs would go out and give Darvish $126 million or Chatwood $39 million knowing it would prevent them from pursuing a generational talent in Bryce Harper this winter. Perhaps more relevant, though, is why they would then pick up a $20 million option on left-hander Cole Hamels to kick off the offseason if that were the case.

Really, it makes no sense.

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: We’re betting everything on standing pat

Chicago is smack-dab in the middle of a championship window. And, in case you don’t remember, those don’t come around regularly in baseball. You’ve got arguably one of the best position player trios in the game: 2016 NL MVP Kris Bryant, a perennial 30-100 first baseman in Anthony Rizzo and 2018 NL MVP runner-up Javier Baez. And you mean to tell me you’re not going to do anything but bet on internal improvements? That’s your strategy to get back to the World Series?

Great.

The days of using Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh as a punching bag are over – like, very much a thing of the past. The Brewers, who we all looked down on last season, came roaring past the Cubs in the second half to capture the division crown. If that memory doesn’t linger in your mind, well, I encourage you to go watch Game 163 so you know how 2018 ended.

We’re betting everything – a chance at another division title, a postseason berth or the publicly-stated ultimate goal: a World Series title – on a starting rotation loaded with big names (several of whom are on the wrong side of their 30s), a bullpen loaded with lackluster options in the middle innings and an offense that, as Epstein put it, “broke” late last year.

Next. All kinds of reasons for Ricketts to duck Cubs fans. dark

But instead, we’re told the team is going to rest on our laurels and simply have faith in the guys. That’s all fine and dandy, but you don’t win by being complacent. This team has too many holes for ownership to clutch their checkbook this offseason. Tom Ricketts knows it. Theo Epstein knows it. And every Cubs fan knows it.

So how about we do something about it?

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