The Chicago Cubs were one of the worst teams in the National League during the 2022 MLB season. They finished near the bottom and had no chance at the postseason from the beginning. It was sort of the plan for that to be the case.
Now, there were enough flashes from the team that has management thinking that they can compete in 2023. That might be misguided when you think about the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies all in their league.
They might be able to try and overtake the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers which is good enough to get them to the playoffs but then what from there?
Well, signing a big-time free-agent superstar could certainly help them grow as an organization. It is starting to sound like Carlos Correa is the guy at the top of their list. In fact, according to reports, they met with him on Monday.
The Chicago Cubs are trying hard to spend some money this off-season.
The Winter Meetings are going on right now so signings are happening all around the league which means that they might need to act fast.
Trea Turner already took his name off the market by signing an 11-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies worth 300 million dollars. That sort of set the market for the rest of the superstar shortstops available.
Correa is one of them with Dansby Swanson and Xander Bogaerts. The Cubs have shown interest in both Correa and Swanson. They are also tied to Bogaerts because of the fact that Jed Hoyer (who was with the Red Sox back in the day) is the Cubs’ GM.
The fact that the Cubs met with Correa is significant. He knows that they are interested and now the rest of the world knows it too. The Cubs are making a statement that they are trying to win. Whether or not they succeed will be the next question.
Correa can sign at any time but the folks on the north side are hoping that it ends up being with them. We will certainly see soon how this all shakes out for the Cubs.