Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, back at Cubs Convention 2020, provided an unforgettable response to the crowd’s booing of the soon to be launched Marquee Network. “You won’t be booing in a year,” he said. I guess he was sort of right, as today many Cub fans have a level of anger that makes them want to do some things that go beyond booing. Meanwhile other Cubs fans, demoralized by a season that’s on pace for 101 losses, have checked out too much to even bother booing any more.
Get ready, because another round of anger-inducing transactions are about to go down. It’s that time of year again- MLB Trade Deadline season, and with it, another Ricketts sell-off. Willson Contreras is all but certain to leave, while the other Cubs All-Star, Ian Happ, is likely to move as well.
Any time you trade off established veteran players for prospects, you are taking a major gamble, like in a game of blackjack. Or a spin on the roulette wheel. Some prospects pan out, others do not, but the other end of the deal is certain- a known commodity is being sold off. And it’s about to happen again, although obviously, there aren’t enough assets left to rival the black days of last year’s epic fire sale.
At the end of the day though, no matter what Ricketts says publicly, it’s about gutting the team in order to save money on payroll. Ricketts claimed that once the Cubs had their own television network, they would then have the added cash flow (please don’t say “revenue stream”, I hate that corporatespeak phrase so badly!) to buy more players and make the team better. The exact opposite has happened.
$204.76: average cost for a family of 4 to attend a MLB game, via @TheHustle: pic.twitter.com/w7ehdW6DqO
โ Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) July 20, 2022
He’s also cried poor on multiple occasions, all the while having the second most expensive gameday experience in all of baseball. Yep, check out the graphic above for citation. Not to mention that, according to Forbes, the Cubs have the fourth highest club valuation in all of baseball.
Oh by the way, they also looked into trying to buy an English soccer team that sold for over $4 billion, so it really is kind of safe to assume that they have zero financial issues right now. And the sad truth is that Ricketts has a non-Rebuilding Plan going on here. Willson Contreras wants to stay, and his contract is coming up.
But the Cubs don’t want to keep him, despite his being a three time All-Star in his young career and one of the best catchers in all of baseball.
MLB Trade Rumors has more on where he might go between now and deadline day.
As for Ian Happ, it took awhile, but he’s finally starting to live up to his hype as the ninth overall selection in the 2015 MLB Draft. Better late than never, but his fine season hasn’t generated any talk of an extension. According to the Sun-Times, Happ is bracing himself for a difficult goodbye to his teammates.
At some point, the Cubs will need to retain good, core, solid everyday baseball players, instead of trading them away for unknown prospects.
Sadly, it may not be until the next owner comes in.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net)ย andย author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ as well asย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
He has regularly appeared inย WGN,ย Sports Illustratedย and theย Chicago Tribune,ย and heย co-hosts theย After Extra Time podcast, part ofย Edge of the Crowd Network.ย Follow him and the website onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
