In a sit down at the Winter Meetings attended by North Side Baseball, Craig Counsell may have tipped the Cubs’ hand regarding their offseason plans. Of course, he didn’t spell their plans out; that would not be the Cubs way. We can learn much by mining his key quotes, though, to see what nuggets can be gleaned.

THE CUBS WON’T PAY MARKET PRICE FOR A NEW BAT
Quote 1, from Counsell:
“From a position-player standpoint, the loss right now is [Kyle Tucker], obviously. The rest of the group is back and likely with us. We did have young players that did contribute in a big way. I thought [Moisés Ballesteros] in September played like—he gave us the offensive production of Tucker, essentially, in the month of September.

Between him and [Owen Caissie], who was unfortunately hurt for most of that month, those are two important players as we sit right now. There’s not much to think about there.”

And later in the session:

“But every young player is a contending team, too. Young players get, they have to get chances. They have to get chances. And the game, look around the league. I think that’s one thing, that you have to give your young players opportunities. Your team is better for giving your young players opportunities.”

Takeaway: It seems clear that the Cubs are going to give opportunities to their in-house pieces. Counsell did acknowledge Kyle Tucker, his production, and the need to replace it. He also mentioned how Ballesteros basically put up Tucker numbers (.999 OPS, 2 home runs in 46 plate appearances) in September. Counsell’s lament about Caissie’s concussion in September echoed a talking point from Jed Hoyer this week; the Cubs want people to know that they were eager to see more of Caissie than they got to see in 2025.

The Cubs do have budget constraints, and its not likely they will spend large amounts of it on a bat. They believe in their young guys, and Counsell will give them the room they need—or at least, he has the rationale for that course locked and loaded, should things break that way.

So, Alex Bregman? Well, here’s what Counsell had to say:

“[Matt Shaw] is going to play a big part on this team. No question he’ll have a big role and a big place on this team.”

This was part of his first question answered. He expanded, saying Shaw had a great second half and was a plus third baseman defensively by the end of the year. These comments don’t lend themselves to the Cubs actively seeking upgrades, though again, there’s an element of smokescreen to even a manager’s remarks.

THE CUBS WILL SPEND MORE HEAVILY ON PITCHING
“We ended up pitching pretty well. But I think at the start of the season, it maybe wasn’t the guys we expected to do it. It just shows—I think it’s, get a bunch of good arms and kind of see what happens and have enough abilities to pivot when you have to during the season.”

” I think that’s an important part of the season. But it’s also something for us to just consider, is that the starting pitching injuries, it’s significant. They can be very significant, and there’s very few position player injuries that keep you out for the season. And it happens more on the starting pitcher side.”

As you can see, Counsell is mainly concerned with getting large amounts of quality arms to get through the season. This does make sense, for reasons we’ve exhaustively documented, and it’s a very managerly thing to say. No one benefits more from a deep pitching staff than the skipper, who can avoid getting a hard time for overusing his trusted arms and knows he has many paths from Out No. 1 to Out No/ 27 each day.

Look for the Cubs to allocate significant funds (or, perhaps, prospect capital) to the rotation and bullpen. It could be addressed by trade or free-agent signing. Either way, the team knows where it fell short last season, and is planning to address it.

According to reporting, the Cubs have between $50 million and $60 million to burn this offseason. When you factor in Counsell’s interview, it seems like pitching and depth pieces will be the focus—at least financially, and first.