Chicago Cubs: Tom Ricketts ‘feels strongly’ the team can win as built

Chicago Cubs: Problems with Marquee won’t help matters

One thing that could help? A successful roll-out of Marquee Network, which announced Hulu as its first major streaming service partner on Monday. Still, there’s no deal in place with any other streaming services or Comcast, which would leave most of Chicagoland without access to Cubs broadcasts when Cactus League action starts this weekend.

“I can’t speculate on exactly how much the Marquee network will change the financial picture of the team, and I can’t speculate on where Competitive Balance Taxes are going,” Ricketts said. “(The network) is a good thing for the team. Once it’s fully distributed and fully operational, it will give us more financial resources. But how we put those to use or how much that is, it’s way too early to tell.”

So, despite the past comments of Crane Kenney, the team’s president of business operations, there’s now a lag on when that faucet of financial capital will be at ownership’s disposal. Even when it is in the hands of Ricketts, there’s no clear answer how it’ll be put to use, either.

That’s hardly encouraging if you’re a fan who’s grown frustrated with two consecutive offseasons of inactivity. Sure, Epstein was able to pull off the midseason acquisition of Castellanos and signed Craig Kimbrel, but even those moves – namely the latter – has consequences for Chicago.

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According to Ricketts, that signing ate into the money that would have otherwise been available to the front office this winter. Despite all of this, though, Ricketts continues to state his faith in Epstein and his team.

“I trust our baseball guys to put those resources to work in the right way and also keep a long-term perspective,” Ricketts said. “And once again with the strategy of trying to be as consistent as possible to make the playoffs as often as possible. And I think our guys will make good decisions.”

The Cubs largely made do with under-the-radar minor league signings this winter, bringing in a ton of pitching depth and some veterans on offense.

They’re hoping Jason Kipnis can help be part of the solution at second base among that group while looking for at least two or three arms to prove they’re ready to contribute to a contending big league club.

All told, things could be worse – just ask the Astros and Jose Altuve‘s terrible tattoo. It’s on manager David Ross to squeeze as much juice was possible out of this team in 2020, regardless of whether or not he’ll get any reinforcements to support the core at any point in the semi-near future.