Latest Juan Soto rumor confirms the game may have passed Jed Hoyer by

There's only so many different ways we can tell you that the Chicago Cubs are not going to be involved in the free-agent sweepstakes for Juan Soto this offseason.

The fact that we can say that without the offseason beginning in earnest is a major red flag for Jed Hoyer entering his final contractual year as the Cubs' President of Baseball Operations. In recent offseasons, the cost of doing business in Major League Baseball has gone up.

The fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are the two teams playing in the World Series is not a sign that baseball is broken. The Dodgers and Yankees have spent the money to be a championship-caliber team and the reward for that is playing in the World Series.

Perhaps the most alarming fear for the situation the Cubs find themselves in is the team is aware the need to close the gap from barely being a 80-win team to being a team routinely wins 90 games a season but Hoyer doesn't have an urgency to go with trend. The trend for a team like the Cubs is to spend money in free agency.

If the Dodgers sign Juan Soto, the Cubs won't be able to bridge gap.

The Dodgers have been aware of that trend and despite being up two games against the Yankees in the World Series, they look to further that trend this winter. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Dodgers will be among the teams interested in signing Soto this offseason.

The Dodgers signing Soto would be the perfect bow for proving how wrong Hoyer has been with the Cubs' roster construction. There can't be a fear of taking a bite of the apple. That fear is what Hoyer has had over the past two years, the primary reason why the 2023 and 2024 seasons were failures.