Chicago Cubs: Here’s where payroll stands heading into the offseason

The Chicago Cubs brass has all but transitioned into offseason mode as the final week of the regular season wraps up. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has already gone on the record saying that they will be “very active” in free agency this winter. After tearing down the team at the trade deadline, the goal for this transition phase is to be quick.

The “biblical losses” excuse not to spend on quality free agents this winter will not fly with fans and media alike with what the payroll situation has shaped up to be. Even with the refusal to add additional significant salaries to the books the past several years, the Cubs were still among the top teams in payroll. With so much money coming off the books, the situation will be drastically different this time around.

Committed payroll is only part of the equation. There is a long list of arbitration and pre-arb players that will factor into the team’s payroll in 2022. Even with all of that mixed together though, there should be plenty of financial flexibility this offseason to make moves. Of course, one would be justified to ask whether or not they will actually use that flexibility to spend on enough quality players.

Chicago Cubs: Only three players have guaranteed contracts for 2022

Per Spotrac, the Cubs have only $41,010,000 in committed salary for next year. This is total salary between the combined base salaries and signing bonuses.

The three players on this list are Jason Heyward, Kyle Hendricks and David Bote. Heyward signed the massive $184 million deal prior to the 2016 season, while Hendricks and Bote received extensions a few years back.

To no surprise, Heyward takes up far and away most of the committed money. He is on the books for $22 million base salary, plus $2.5 million in signing bonus money. The veteran outfielder will be entering his second-to-last year under contract with the Cubs and has a full no-trade clause. While it is frustrating to see that kind of money tied up to a player who has not performed offensively, trading him away would be extremely difficult. Regardless of what uniform Heyward wears in 2022, Chicago will be paying him big bucks.

Hendricks continues under the $55.5 million extension he received back in 2019, making $14 million in 2022. Despite struggling this season, it is hard to imagine him not being a Cub in 2022. Bote will make $2.51 million as part of the five-year, $15 million extension he got in 2019. This includes a $10,000 signing bonus. This is not a lot of money tied up for a player who will probably be a bench/platoon guy going forward.

Chicago Cubs: At least one arbitration-eligible guys will receive a contract

There are currently five guys within the Cubs organization that are arbitration-eligible going into 2022, per Spotrac. This includes Willson Contreras, Ian Happ, Nick Martini, Trayce Thompson and Jonathan Holder. Note that Contreras, Happ and Holder were the three arb-eligible players who signed MLB contracts for this year.

Contreras is going to be interesting. While nothing is set in stone about his future, it is probably best to assume he is going to be a building block for the future. He has one year of team control remaining before becoming a free agent in 2023. He made $6,650,000 this year in his next-to-last trip through arbitration. A big question to ask is if Contreras will get an extension this offseason seeing as he has just that one remaining year of control. What we do know is that there are only three ways this can go this winter: he’s tendered a deal in arbitration to play for 2022, the two sides hammer out a new deal or he’s the latest in a long line of trade departures.

Happ is another question. A few months ago he was looking like a non-tender candidate with his struggles at the plate. However, his recent resurgence puts that into question. One could wonder if they tender him a contract and look to find a trade partner. Happ made $4.1 million this year after being the team’s most productive position player in 2020. If Happ does indeed get tendered a deal and he stays with the Cubs next year, it will not break the bank by any means.

The rest of the arb-eligible players are organizational depth at the most. Martini has played up and down between Triple-A and the Majors. He has had success in Iowa but not so much in the big leagues. Thompson has bounced around several organizations since his MLB debut with the Sox in 2015 and is, at most, the final guy on an MLB roster. Holder has not pitched in the Majors this year due to a shoulder injury.