Cubs proprietor Tom Ricketts is aware of there’s solely a lot they’ll do when making an attempt to compete with the spending skills of groups such because the Mets, the Yankees and the Dodgers.
There’s solely a lot Ricketts can do with making an attempt to draw stars with comparable contracts whereas nonetheless breaking even ultimately.
There’s solely a lot he can do, he mentioned, throughout the present panorama of the game.
“The enterprise mannequin in baseball, it’s labored fairly properly for a very long time, however there’s a number of issues proper now which are just a bit out of kilter,” Ricketts mentioned on 670 The Rating’s “Contained in the Clubhouse.”
“Clearly, the Dodgers have much more assets, naturally, from sensible enterprise strikes they made years in the past. I don’t begrudge them any of that. Some groups simply have exterior assets which are funding their participant strikes and acquisitions, and that’s actually laborious to compete with. I perceive when followers say, ‘How come you don’t spend like that?’ As a result of they assume in some way we’ve all these {dollars} that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we simply preserve it. Which isn’t true in any respect. What occurs is we attempt to break even yearly, and that’s about it.”
The Cubs operated with the seventh-highest payroll in 2024, in line with Spotrac, however their $229 million paled compared to the Mets’ $314 million and the Yankees’ $308 million.
This offseason, the Mets already added Juan Soto on a 15-year, $765 million deal in free company, rising from a sweepstakes that additionally included the Yankees, Dodgers and Pink Sox.
The Dodgers inked offers with aces Blake Snell (5 years, $182 million) and Roki Sasaki, together with different key items for a contending staff akin to outfielder Teoscar Hernandez ($66 million) and Tanner Scott ($72 million).
Los Angeles spent over a billion {dollars} final offseason, too, when touchdown Shohei Ohtani ($700 million), Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million) and lengthening Tyler Glasnow after buying him from the Rays.
And after falling quick of their quest for a Soto reunion, the Yankees pivoted and signed Max Fried in a $218 million splash, traded for Cody Bellinger and changed Anthony Rizzo with former MVP Paul Goldschmidt’s one-year deal.
Whereas the Cubs did land Kyle Tucker in a blockbuster deal with the Astros in December, they’ll doubtless encounter a sweepstakes subsequent offseason for the outfielder to resolve the place he needs a long-term deal.
In addition they have pitcher Shota Imanaga and first baseman Michael Busch returning, too.
However with out the key splashes just like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees have made, it’ll change into tough for the Cubs to maintain tempo.
That, within the eyes of Ricketts, ought to be the extra reasonable strategy.
“The best way you’re going to win the World Sequence is to make the playoffs as typically as doable,” Ricketts mentioned throughout his “Contained in the Clubhouse” look. “If you happen to preserve making it to the playoffs, you’ve obtained a shot. Our aim is to be constant and at all times have a staff that we predict can win our division … completely, we’ve obtained to get again to being a staff that competes for titles. That’s all the pieces.”