3 reasons to remain optimistic about Chicago Cubs baseball

Chicago Cubs: Reasons to remain optimistic – #1: Free agency money available

How long the Cubs will be a mediocre team will remain to be seen. There are too many unknowns at this current point in time. Will Tom Ricketts open the checkbook? If he does, how much money is he willing to make available? Are any big name free agents even going to want to sign with the Cubs?

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I believe that with the proper proposal of laying out the plan moving forward, the Cubs will land at least one solid name in free agency. Another option is if the front office decided they wanted to break the bank this winter and shell out huge lump sums of cash, it would be hard for any player on a contract year to say no, regardless of stardom. That’s where it will be up to Ricketts to really be willing to spend. If they aren’t planning to go all in, there are still alternative routes.

Circling back to the scenario where the Cubs are able to secure at least one good free agent and hold off on more spending from there, we can attempt to plan out what figures to happen in that instance. What then happens is this re-tool, which it has been infamously dubbed, winds up taking an extra year or so.

It will then be left up to Jed Hoyer at the next trade deadline in 2022 to acquire players via trade. By doing so, it shows players and more importantly, big name pending free agents, that the Cubs are serious about getting competitive again. That’s when they will start attracting bigger names in free agency if the checkbook is in fact open.

In this business, money talks. Though fans were recently soured by the news that the front office wasn’t exactly honest about contract negotiations with Kris Bryant, I refuse to believe a player looking to secure a big payday would lose sleep over what was or wasn’t said when they see a contract offer and nine digits attached to it. The fact is, there is a lot of money coming off the books at year’s end. It will be interesting to see how aggressive the front office and ownership pushes this winter.