What makes this truly sad is that it comes as no surprise that the Chicago Cubs are once again going to sit out on the top players available in this offseason’s free agent class. Cubs beat reporters Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma confirmed that pathetic truth about the team, marking another year when ownership is not fully committing to go after the very best players in the league.
Before we get completely irate, I do somewhat understand not wasting time focusing on Juan Soto or Corbin Burnes because there are other valuable players who the Cubs will be pursuing this winter. However, that’s the issue here, the Cubs should be trying to go after the top free agents, something they haven’t actually accomplished in nearly a decade.
Via The Athletic.
The Cubs do not intend to deviate from this course, multiple sources told The Athletic, ruling out a pursuit of Juan Soto or Corbin Burnes even before all the baseball executives and agents checked out of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa.
I just have no idea why this group looks at a star player in his mid-20s and doesn’t say, yeah we want that. And that’s why I understand the apprehension toward going after Burnes, who turned 30-years-old and while he can certainly still be great, you could probably get similar production from a guy like Max Fried or get great value in shorter deals for Walker Buehler or Shane Bieber.
But sitting on the sidelines for Juan Soto? What the hell?
This team spends money, so it’s not a “cheap Ricketts” bitch-fest here, but when it’s time to act like a big-market team ownership has repeatedly shown no desire to go the extra mile for true superstars in this game. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
No idea if Ricketts got scared away from big deals because Jason Heyward flopped with the Cubs, but his $184 million contract remains the biggest in franchise history and that was signed back in 2015. During that offseason Heyward was one of the top-ranked free agents and in the prior offseason the Cubs signed Jon Lester to a $155 million contract.
Since then, the biggest deal the Cubs have agreed to was for Dansby Swanson, who signed a 7-year, $177 million contract. And I guess that’s the route the Cubs will take again, which is fine. Swanson has been worth 9.2 fWAR in his first two seasons with the Cubs, leading his free agent shortstop class.
While I will never give the team a pass for sitting out on Juan Soto, I guess I’m hopeful that they’ll end up landing Max Fried, who may not be Corbin Burnes, but could definitely still be the best pitcher in this free agent class. Pitching appears to be this offseason’s focus for the Cubs, so they better fucking get it right.
It would be nice though if this multi-billion franchise would actually try to get a generational hitter for once.
