The Chicago Cubs‘ ownership has been notoriously stringent on their team’s spending in the past. This has limited Jed Hoyer and the rest of the Cubs front office’s ability to offer top free agents the amount of money it would actually take to sign them in recent years.
While Chicago has managed to land quality free agents every once in a while and acquire elite players via trade (such as them securing Kyle Tucker last offseason), there’s still some frustration among the fan base that the Cubs are more frugal than makes sense, given the amount of revenue the franchise generates.
But there are some signs the budget isn’t as tight this offseason. Hoyer has hinted at this himself by saying that the Cubs expect to be in play for quality players at positions of need.
The clearest position of need is starting pitcher, and it was reported that Chicago was in on right-handed hurler Dylan Cease before bidding surpassed the $200 million mark (he ultimately signed a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays).