Chicago Cubs: 5 myths about the team’s trade deadline moves

Chicago Cubs: Myth #2 The Cubs could be competitive in 2022

Some look at the payroll dump in 2021 and believe that the Cubs will go for it right away in 2022. Ricketts has stated this recently.  Perhaps sign big fee agents, maybe even bring back some or all of the core.

That’s not how a teardown or rebuild work.  The point isn’t to just free up payroll. It’s to pack your farm system with prospects and draft picks, wait until they percolate up to Triple-A, and then bring them all up at once and have the payroll space to make additions as needed.

If the Cubs blow out the payroll in 2022 and beyond then they cramp that plan.  Then, with all those signed free agents on the payroll all that young talent they traded for and drafted is blocked.

They’ll bring in some roster filler on one- or two-year deals.  But a big splash? Not next year nor the year after, in 2023. Hoyer wouldn’t commit to a date when the Cubs will be competitive but I will. Keep your eye on 2024.

Why 2024? Because by then a huge portion of the acquired talent will have risen to the higher minor league levels and the last financial albatross and waste of a roster spot, Jason Heyward, will be gone.