MLB Payroll Analysis and Offseason Preview: Chicago Cubs
By Joshua Mayer
With the regular season over, and all teams’ rosters mostly settled for the year, it’s a good time to start looking at the payroll situation for each MLB team while previewing the upcoming offseason. We continue the series with the Chicago Cubs.
With an MLB best 103-58 record this season, the Cubs will be vying for their first World Series appearance since 1945, with the chance to win it for the first time since 1908. The regular season has been an astounding success, but as Jon Lester recently echoed, it’s World Series or bust for the majors’ best roster.
With two leading MVP candidates in Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, and two leading Cy Young candidates in Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester all playing under Manager of the Year candidate Joe Maddon, the Cubs are loaded with talent. Surrounding those players are experienced veterans like John Lackey, David Ross and Ben Zobrist. Not to mention Jason Heyward and Jake Arrieta, who both have superstar talent. Even with all of these veterans, the most impressive part of the Cubs roster is all the young talent.
With Addison Russell, Javier Baez and Willson Contreras starting almost every day, the Northsiders have a lot of youth as they look to conquer the postseason after sweeping through the regular season easily.
Though all Cubs fans are focused on the playoffs, and rightfully so, there is still an offseason coming in about a month. The team has some key players as free agents, as half of the projected playoff bullpen will have their contracts expire after the year. Catcher David Ross joins them, though he has announced his retirement already. Let’s take a look at each free agent on a case-by-case basis to see who may be coming back.
Note: Only players on 40-man roster/60-day DL with MLB experience accounted for. Players who are not on a 40-man, or on a 40-man without MLB experience have not had their service clocks started.
All stats courtesy of Fangraphs unless otherwise noted
Note: Format of last part of preview has changed from an overall overview to a recommendation of five offseason moves