3 moves the Chicago Cubs have to make after Shohei Ohtani signs with Dodgers

Now that we have confirmation that the Chicago Cubs won't have a $600MM expenditure this off-season, the team will need to begin their moves in earnest.

The Cubs' primary off-season target this off-season was Shohei Ohtani. Up until last week, the Cubs were believed to be one of the finalists for Ohtani. As the Winter Meetings dragged on this week with little action, it had become clear by the end that the Cubs were falling behind in their pursuit of Ohtani. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays emerged as the favorites for Ohtani by the end of the Winter Meetings.

On Saturday, Ohtani agreed to the largest deal in the history of Major League Baseball as he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now that Ohtani has officially agreed to a deal, we likely will see a flurry of activity within the next week.

The market was held up as Ohtani made his decision with the likes of the Cubs, Blue Jays, and San Francisco Giants involved in the bidding. Now that each of those three teams has missed on their primary target, there will be a pivot to the top remaining free agents available such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Cody Bellinger.

The Cubs will need to act quickly if they are to have a successful plan. It's likely that the Cubs' front office had a contingency plan in place in the event that they missed on Ohtani. Now that they know Ohtani will not be calling Wrigley Fields, the team must make these three moves.