After initially looking like they screwed up this season, the Chicago Cubs are looking great for not chasing Carlos Correa.
Chicago Cubs fans were preparing for the worst this season. Not that the team hasn’t been in a position to climb out of the limbo it’s been in since trading away the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant and Javier Baez, but rather that it’s given no indication of the willingness to spend.
Before the Winter Meetings, it was rumored that Jed Hoyer got the go-ahead from ownership to give the fans what they wanted and spend big in free agency. This naturally connected the Cubs with both excitement from fans and the top free agents in the market, particularly Carlos Correa.
Instead of going and getting Correa, the Cubs avoided chasing a free agent off the top of the roster but ended up turning him into the right move.
Avoiding all the injury drama was the first bullet the Cubs front office dodged. It would have been the most Cubs thing ever if, after a slow post-trade progression away from the World Series core, the first big move resulted in a deal that rotted faster than the last one delivered. It’s going to be hard to say how bad Jason Hayward’s deal was and how badly he ended up tying up the Cubs’ spending confidence, but chasing it with Corea unable to stay healthy as the ink runs dry on his Chicago contract would have been tough. get over.
Fortunately, Cubs fans don’t have to deal with that.
Instead, the Cubs did something fans might not have expected, given how unexciting the moves have been lately. Not only has the front office avoided an injury nightmare with Correa, he has spread his potential contract across multiple deals that could have more impact than a single player could.
Here’s what the Cubs have been able to do in free agency this winter:
- Dansby Swanson – 7 years, $177 million
- Jameson Tellon – 4 years, $68 million
- Cody Bellinger – 1 year, $17 million
- Drew Smillie – 2 cents, $19 million
Compare that to what the Mets are likely to pay Korea. Instead of shelling out $315 million for one player, Hoyer paid $34 million less to acquire three no-impact agents and restore a key pitcher for 2023.
That’s huge, and pretty unexpected given how thin the margins are in the winter.
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