MESA, Ariz. — It took only 78 seconds into the Chicago Cubs’ first news conference of the spring Sunday for their front office executives to be asked about the topic that continues to saturate sports talk in Chicago.
Are the Cubs going to make a major acquisition before opening day, or, specifically, sign free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman?
‘Unclear,’ said Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations. ‘I think you always look for opportunity, but right now we’re going to focus on the guys we have in camp. That’s the plan.’
The news conference lasted another 30 minutes, with just about every question alluding to Bregman or the Cubs’ payroll. And no matter how many times it was brought up, directly or indirectly, Hoyer and Cubs GM Carter Hawkins offered no clues.
The reality is that the Cubs already are favored to win the NL Central, and even run away with it according to the PECOTA projections, which would end a four-year postseason drought.
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Would Bregman make them a legitimate power, perhaps even the best NL team outside the Los Angeles city limits?
‘Whatever clubhouse he walks into,’ Cubs veteran starter Matthew Boyd says, ‘he’s going to make that team better. The guy’s a winner. Everyone would tell you that.’
Yet, while the Cubs continue to talk to agent Scott Boras about Bregman, there’s no indication that the Cubs would be willing to offer more than a three-year contract. There’s also no sign that Bregman would dramatically lower his asking price when he already has at least one six-year offer on the table.
The Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros have all made offers of at least four years to Bregman, but no one has been willing to meet his asking price.
The Astros made a six-year, $156 million offer to Bregman in November and, while they say the door is open for a reunion, they’re openly pessimistic.
The Tigers and Red Sox have made their interest clear all winter, but not with offers lucrative enough to satisfy Bregman’s demands.
The fact that Bregman remains unsigned has led the Cubs to at least inquire about potentially signing him – and perhaps may be willing to offer the highest annual salary if he’s willing to accept a short-term deal.
The Cubs’ projected payroll is $191 million, leaving them well below the $241 million luxury tax and, of course, far below the payrolls of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and New York Yankees, which will exceed $300 million.
Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, who insists the Cubs lost money last year, says they can’t compete financially with those teams, raising the fury of frustrated Cubs’ fans.
‘I think our fans somehow think we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have, or the Mets have, or the Yankees have,’ Ricketts said at the Cubs Convention last month, ‘and we just keep it. It’s not true. We just try to break even every year.’
Hoyer was asked whether the spending, particularly by the Dodgers and Mets, was bad for baseball’s competitive balance, but he refused to be drawn into the debate.
‘I don’t think anyone wants my opinion on whether it’s good or bad for baseball,’ Hoyer said. ‘I’m not going to give that opinion. Those teams are National League teams. Those are teams we’re going to play. Those are teams that will potentially take playoff spots in the National League. So it doesn’t matter whether I think it’s good or bad for the game. It matters that’s our competition.’
Certainly, Hoyer realizes that life, much less his job security, would be a whole lot easier if he was permitted to offer a blank check to Bregman instead of having to rely on their best prospect, Matt Shaw, to be their everyday third baseman.
Hoyer, who has been with the Cubs for the past 14 years, is on the final year of his contract with no talks about a potential extension. If the Cubs win the NL Central, or at least earn a playoff berth, he’s expected to return. If they miss the playoffs again, Hoyer likely will be out of work. It’s the business of baseball.
‘Does it feel different than it has in the past? A little bit,’ Hoyer said. ‘I’ve been here for 14 years, and sort of generally in my career, I haven’t had much uncertainty. So I think with uncertainty does come a level of anxiety. I think that would be a lie to say that it doesn’t.
‘Has it caused some introspection along the way? I think that’s fair to say.’
Hoyer acknowledges that last year’s 83-79 season, after spending $40 million on manager Craig Counsell, was a bitter disappointment. They may have overachieved to go 83-79 in 2023, but certainly underachieved a year ago, finishing 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, the team Counsell left.
‘I thought we outperformed our expectations in 2023, to be candid,’ Hoyer said. ‘Our hope was that we would do it again, and it didn’t. I found it to be a tremendously frustrating season. The goal was to make the postseason.’
Simply now, it’s playoffs or bust.
‘It feels like there’s increased pressure,’ Hoyer said. ‘I think there probably should be given that we’ve spent some time to get to this place. It should be a lot of fun.’
If the Cubs didn’t believe they’d win the division, they certainly wouldn’t have traded for Astros All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker and late-inning reliever Ryan Pressly, even though both could walk as free agents after the season. They bolstered their bullpen with six acquisitions, including trading for Ryan Brasier of the Dodgers and Eli Morgan of the Cleveland Guardians. They signed Boyd to a two-year, $29 million to fill out their rotation.
‘I think we’re a better team, absolutely,’ Counsell said.
Said Brasier, trying to become the first player to win a World Series with the Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs: ‘There’s so much young talent in here, why not? You can see it.’
Said Boyd: ‘We got a lot of talented guys on this pitching staff, a very talented offense, and are extremely talented defensively. And what really stands out is the cohesiveness in here. We’ve got something special.’
And yet, despite the optimism inside their spring-training complex, Cubs’ fans are clamoring for more, in particular, a certain third baseman out of Houston that’s keeping the rumors churning in Chicago.
‘We are in the entertainment business,’ Hoyer said, ‘and I think that there’s times that there’s rumors out there that have no basis in reality. You’ll read an article that’s thousands of words based on something that’s never come up. So, that’s the nature of this business. …
‘People deeply care about us. They want us to be a really good team. They want to talk about it. They want to think about different possibilities. And that leads to a lot of rumors.’
So you’re saying there’s still a chance Bregman walks through the Cubs’ clubhouse doors?
‘I don’t ever rule out adding anything …,’ Hoyer said, without uttering Bregman’s name. ‘Starting today, that’s what it’s about: How do we try to shore up any areas where we think are weaknesses? …
‘I won’t rule out anything.’
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