2 Chicago Cubs who will be costly in arbitration and 3 who will not

The Chicago Cubs will have nine players eligible to hit arbitration this winter, meaning the team will have to pay them more than the minimum MLB salary of $720,000.

Exactly how much each guy will make is on a case-by-case basis and will depend on multiple variables including service time, their performance this year, and how much the organization values them moving forward.

Here are two players who will cost the Cubs a decent chunk of change in arbitration and two who will not.

Costly: Justin Steele

Justin Steele took a massive step forward in 2023 and established himself as the most reliable starting pitcher in the rotation. A 3.06 ERA over 173.1 innings with 176 strikeouts are huge strides for a guy in his second full season as a starting pitcher. And the fruits of Steele's hard work will get him a nice pay bump in arbitration this winter.

In 2023, Steele made $740,000 according to Spotrac, which is now way below what he should be making. After his Cy Young contending performance, the projections from MLB trade rumors have Steele securing a $4.1 million contract for his first arbitration year in 2024.

This number doesn't surprise me at all since Steele will have significant bargaining leverage after his stellar year on the mound. Hopefully the 28-year-old can continue to give the Cubs great years in the future and keep increasing these salary projections.

Cheap: Codi Heuer

Reliever Codi Heuer was slated to make his return in 2023 after a long recovery from Tommy John surgery. However, the former White Sox set-up man suffered a major setback during a rehab assignment with the Iowa Cubs in June.

Since he didn't throw a pitch at the major league level this year (or in 2022), Heuer's salary is projected to stay exactly where it is now at $785,000. The Cubs could end up getting significant value out of this contract if Heuer comes back and returns to the guy he was a couple of years ago.

Heuer has a career-respectable 3.56 ERA across 91 innings pitched with the White Sox and Cubs. When the Cubs acquired him in the Craig Kimbrel trade, Heuer was projected to be a major component of the team's bullpen. He flashed plus velocity on his fastball that averaged 96 mph and hitters struggled to barrel up his stuff.

Of course, we don't know what we're going to get from Heuer after his elbow issues and we still don't even have a solid outlook on his return so there is a lot still up in the air. That being said, Heuer's contract will still be team-friendly in 2024.

Costly: Patrick Wisdom

The projections have Patrick Wisdom making $2.6 million in 2024, which isn't necessarily expensive. It's just too expensive for what you're getting from Wisdom.

First of all, Wisdom doesn't even qualify for many batting statistics because he didn't collect enough at-bats (268). And this wasn't due to injury because he only spent about two and a half weeks on the IL this year. Wisdom simply isn't good enough to play every day, which should be a wake-up call to the front office to either trade or release him because paying him $2.1 million is absurd for a guy getting less than 300 at-bats a year.

Yes, when Wisdom gets the barrel to the ball, he hits it a mile but the team can't afford to play him often enough for his home runs to give you value. His defense at third is okay but at first base, it is not good, his base running isn't strong and he simply struggles to do anything but hit home runs or strikeout (36.8%) at the plate.

Costly: Mike Tauchman

Similar to Patrick Wisdom, I don't really see any point in giving Mike Tauchman his projected $2 million. I understand that the summer of Mike Tauchman was exciting and featured some of the best moments of the year, but let's not forget that 2023 was one of just two seasons where Tauchman has seen success at the major league level.

Since 2017, Tauchman has floated around four different teams and never collected more than 250 at-bats until this year. At 32 years old, I don't think the Cubs can seriously consider giving Tauchman this kind of money to be a role player.

By no stretch of the imagination should Tauchman be getting starts in center field next year if Cody Bellinger returns to the team. I know that is a really big if but even if Bellinger goes elsewhere, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alexander Canario are better all-around players than Tauchman. Tauchman's defense and speed alone are liabilities compared to Crow-Armstrong.

All I'm saying is the projected $4.6 million currently slated to be split between Tauchman and Wisdom could be used in a better way in my opinion.

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