Cubs: Don’t expect Ricketts to spend this offseason

It would appear that for the second consecutive offseason, the Cubs will not be big spenders in the offseasons per owner Tom Ricketts.

Cubs Chairman, Tom Ricketts, joined Mully and Haugh on 670 The Score Wednesday morning and provided some insight for the team’s offseason plans. While parts of the interview delved into parting with Joe Maddon and the Cubs managerial search and ultimate conclusion with David Ross, he hinted that the team may not be opening up the pocketbooks this offseason. That doesn’t mean that internal discussions won’t happen to potentially extending core players but Cubs fans should temper their expectations to signing a Gerrit Cole or Anthony Rendon.

With the Competitive Balance Tax, or more commonly known as the Luxury Tax, threshold projected to be at $208 million next season, the Cubs will be right there with a projected Opening Day payroll of $207.8 million. And despite not spending last offseason, the Cubs will still be subject to exceeding last year’s Luxury Tax and will face steeper fines if they exceed that again next year. The Red Sox were subject to approximately $12 million in fines last offseason and they’ll be subject to more than that this offseason for repeat offenses.

"“The real key is you have to develop players. You can’t really buy teams. You have to build them. I think everybody in baseball understands that. Our guys know that. We have to really just refocus on drafting well and then working out a lot of the newer analytics and newer strategies for developing players to get their maximum potential. That’s really what our challenge is now looking forward.” – 670 The Score"

Now, an early look at the Cubs 2020 payroll indicates that they could save nearly $10.5 million for declining Jose Quintana‘s club option as well as non-tendering both Addison Russell and Albert Almora to save a combined $7 million in projected arbitration values. While Russell and Almora could be considered replaceable, the Cubs would obviously lose a quality player by moving on without Quintana. So it’s a catch-22.

Ricketts indicated that there isn’t really a direct correlation between spending and winning. Given the Cubs last two seasons, that would ring true and at some point, the roster just has to produce. He was also asked about the Cubs championship window relating to when most of the Cubs core is set to become free agents and responded that the team should be “consistent without windows“.

The Cubs are in a precarious situation this offseason. The roster on paper looks like a really good team but the results the last couple of seasons have shown otherwise. The team may have to explore moving one of their core pieces this offseason in a trade to free up some capital but all fantasies about signing one of the big-name free agents are not realistic at this point.