Thoughts After the Cubs Failed to Sign Carlos Correa
- I need to know what the Cubs offered Carlos Correa. They offered him something, someone please find out what the terms were.
- If Jed Hoyer is so hesitant to spend big, specifically offer a contract above 10 years, why should any fans believe the Cubs will ever be in a position to sign top free agents moving forward. Yeah, I’m sure Shohei Ohtani and Rafael Devers are desperate to sign shorter deals after seeing the free agent market explode this year. The Cubs are going to out-bid the Dodgers, right? Ha.
- It’s becoming clear that Hoyer is so scared to go big in free agency because the last time the Cubs were all in and needed to add, ownership cut off resources heading into the 2018-19 offseason. Forget about things being tight because of the COVID-19 pandemic, making things difficult for the Cubs in 2020 and 2021, two years before that the Cubs had every intention to pursue Bryce Harper and ownership said, tough shit.
- By the way, I’m not excusing Hoyer at all. You have to take risks in free agency and if you can’t spend four or five years later, then you figure something else out. This method of being conservative when approaching the top of the free agent market will keep ending the same way, losing out on the best players.
- The most annoying part about Hoyer since he took over after the 2020 season is that there hasn’t been a clear message coming from the team. I’ll add ownership to this, too. Fine, they wanted to start over after not being able to lock up any of their core players and needed to replenish the farm system. OK. But then Hoyer and Ricketts refused to call this phase a rebuild. All right, so 2022 was a transition year, signing a couple impactful players in Seiya Suzuki and Marcus Stroman because then 2023 the team was going to be ready to be a playoff team again. You do that by adding more good players, stars, which the Cubs do not have. So, now the best player they can sign Dansby Swanson. Cool. What’s the plan here?
- Let’s take a step back and be optimistic for a second. Let’s say Hoyer is finally in fuck it mode next year and says he’s prepared to go all-in for one of the free agents. Love it. Problem is, there’s no guarantee that those players even reach free agency. I still remember how there were rumblings about the Cubs waiting for Mookie Betts, or how much they liked Nolan Arenado. We were told not worry about Harper and Manny Machado because there would be star free agents later. Later is now and the Cubs still haven’t signed a star.
- Hoyer deserves blame, but the Ricketts aren’t off the hook here. They did a pretty good job this past month turning the anger toward Hoyer, but let’s not get it confused. When it comes to big deals like the one Carlos Correa got from the Giants, ownership is involved. They still have to OK a deal of that magnitude.
- Back to Hoyer. There’s a chance that he’s not even employed the Cubs the next time the team is actually serious about offering huge deals.
- These long deals, Correa with the longest at 13 years, why would Hoyer care. I mean, definitely a great chance that he wouldn’t even be around by the end of that contract with the Cubs. Let the next guy worry about it in 2033.
- A decade ago, the biggest free agent contracts were $147 million and $125 million to Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton, respectively. Time passes, things change, stop thinking the deals being signed right now are some atrocity.
- Stop carrying water for owners. The Cubs have the highest priced tickets in MLB. So, stop saying you don’t want them spending this or that on players because tickets will get higher. They’re high already and we still don’t have star players. The ones they had? They’re on other teams now.
- Fuck Tom Ricketts.