3 free agents Chicago Cubs should sign but won’t spend money on

3 free agents Chicago Cubs should sign but won’t spend money on – Marcus Stroman

In recent days, Marcus Stroman had nothing but good things to say about the Cubs, noting that, despite the re-tooling, he doesn’t think Chicago will have any issues attracting marquee talent this winter.

Those comments were interesting given the team’s glaring need for starting pitching and the fact Stroman, who has long been of interest to the Cubs, is a free agent coming off a solid showing in the Big Apple.

After opting out of the shortened 2020 campaign, the right-hander bounced back in a big way this year, tying for the league lead with 33 starts that spanned just under 180 innings, working to a 3.02 ERA for the Mets. Now, he’ll head into free agency as one of the bigger names on the pitching side of things, coming off a year in which he earned $18.9 million.

Again, Hoyer is going to have to figure out what level he wants to play at here. You saw what happened when he tried to strike gold with guys like Zach Davies, Trevor Williams and Jake Arrieta this year – hopefully that means there’s at least one legitimate starter added this winter. Stroman fits the bill and, assuming Hendricks bounces back, gives Chicago a nice top-of-the-rotation duo.

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But given the relative lack of top-shelf starters (assuming you don’t want to pay aging arms like Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer), Stroman is going to be a hot commodity. Again, the Cubs have the resources to pull it off – but it’ll require ownership and the front office being ready to start acting like a big market team again instead of the step-sibling of teams like the Rays.