The Chicago Cubs miss out on another big free-agent target

The Chicago Cubs got off to a big start this offseason. Jameson Taillon and Cody Bellinger are great places to start as they try to fill things out. Both of them are just good depth players at this point in their careers but having them certainly won’t hurt the team.

However, they are supposed to start as a base for some other big-time free agents that are supposed to follow. So far, things have not really been falling in line for them as much as we thought they were going to earlier in the off-season.

It started when Trea Turner signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. He would have been absolutely perfect for the Cubs but that never came to be.

Over the weekend, we learned that Xander Bogaerts is leaving the Boston Red Sox to join the San Diego Padres. That was one of the targets mentioned for the Cubs as he has ties with Jed Hoyer. Now, he goes to a big-time national league team that believes they can win big.

The Chicago Cubs missed out on starting pitcher Kodai Senga in free agency.

Now, late on Saturday, it came out that Kodai Senga is going to the New York Mets. That was a big-time Chicago Cubs target as it was clear that they wanted him. He would have been absolutely perfect for the Cubs in their attempt of rebuilding their rotation.

Kodai is going to go to this Mets team where he will be a big part of a brilliant rotation right off the bat. They gave him a five-year contract at 75 million dollars. Senga has an opt-out after the third year. He was dominant in Japan and now he will look to bring that stuff to New York City.

The Mets are a wagon right now. They keep adding to their payroll as they attempt to build this mega team. Their owner, Steve Cohen, will buy whatever he has to buy in order to bring the Mets a World Series championship.

Neither Chicago baseball team has ever seen their organization do anything close to that. It would be fun if either team signed one of these guys but the Mets just take them all. There is nothing in the rules against it.

The Cubs are in danger of this offseason going so poorly based on expectations. Adding Bellinger and Taillon was nice but they lost Willson Contreras to their biggest rival which brings it down a bit.

There are still good options out there like Carlos Rodon, Dansby Swanson, and Carlos Correa but nothing is guaranteed yet. If they miss on all of them, this offseason will go from all the hype to all of the disappointment.