Chicago Cubs: Jed Hoyer’s secret weapon will be free agency

Chicago Cubs: Looking at the names available in the 2022 free agent class

2022 might be one of the very best free agent classes ever. There are plenty of names available, at all different price ranges that can help reshape or “re-tool” your team. For organizational purposes we will break down the top names into two tiers:

Tier one:

• Max Scherzer
• Clayton Kershaw
• Kevin Gausman
• Kris Bryant
• Javier Baez
• Marcus Semien
• Trevor Story
• Corey Seager
• Freddy Freeman

Tier two:

• Noah Syndergaard
• Zach Greinke
• Charlie Morton
• Kenley Jansen
• Marcus Stroman
• Anthony Rizzo
• Carlos Correa
• Chris Taylor
• Starling Marte

And so, so many more. You can check out the entire list of 2022 unrestricted free agents here. Of course, it will be interesting to see what price tags certain players come with. My best speculation here tells me that Tom Ricketts is getting ready to open the checkbook again and Hoyer is standing by for the word.

Spending aggressively in free agency is the best and fastest way to become ready to make another deep playoff run. You are not going to find much success signing vast amounts of relievers for league minimum with a 6.00+ ERA, hoping to find a diamond in the rough that turns it around.

If the Cubs want to strike, they need to do so while the iron is hot. The stars have now aligned to spend big in free agency. By doing so, this “re-tool” would be completed rather quickly and a renewed optimism will be found on the North Side.