Recent Chicago Cubs mailbag offers a concerning take about offseason spending

Over the past year, the Chicago Cubs have been fascinated by the Arizona Diamondbacks' approach.

The Diamondbacks snuck into the postseason last season and managed to play their way to the World Series against the Texas Rangers. After a slow start to the season, the Diamondbacks have gotten hot and now sit at the top of the National League Wild Card race.

While there is plenty to like with how the Diamondbacks have operated in recent seasons, it becomes problematic for a team like the Cubs to want to emulate that model.

The Cubs, in the third-largest market in Major League Baseball, have the resources to spend each offseason like the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees. Instead, the team treats the first tier of the luxury tax threshold as if it is a marker that they can not pass.

Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (Subscription Required) was asked about that idea and cited team sources in saying that the first tax threshold is not a hard cap for the Cubs. What was concerning in Sharma's mailbag was this line he offered in answering that question:

They probably do need a good finish to justify to ownership that it’s worth investing in this team and that this is not a 70-win roster.

At 57-60 on the season, it seems likely that the Cubs will finish the year with at least 70 wins. The troubling part of Sharma's statement is that a large reason this team faltered this season is the lack of investment in the roster last offseason.

Regardless of how the Cubs finish the 2024 season, there needs to be serious investment into this team during the offseason. With Jed Hoyer entering the final year of his contract, there isn't a scenario where it makes sense for Ricketts to pull resources from being put into the Major League product next season.