HI, TOM RICKETTS. CUBS MIGHT WIN IT ALL, SO FIND $500 MILLION AND SIGN KYLE TUCKER
The owner is allowing his president to say soft words — “You must have your limits,” Jed Hoyer said — which is the last comment a Chicago sports fan wants to hear in a long era of front-office misfits
Limits. No one in Wrigleyville — no one who roots for the Chicago Cubs inside an orbit locked with sudden, hopeful rage — wants to hear such gibberish from the team president. Mark Walter has no limits at Dodger Stadium. Steve Cohen has no limits at Citi Field. Hal Steinbrenner cannot have limits at Yankee Stadium. In Philadelphia and Toronto and a handful of other Major League Baseball datelines, they don’t draw chippy constraints between the best players and the franchise payroll.
“Limits,” said Jed Hoyer, nonetheless, only upsetting fans who will rebel if corporate boundaries interfere with signing Kyle Tucker.
It certainly shouldn’t happen on the North Side, where the Cubs have a chance to win their second World Series in 117 years. They finally won in 2016 and almost immediately angered fans who saw Joe Maddon fired, then saw Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber whisked away. Here they are again — centered around a cultural gem named Pete Crow-Armstrong and one of the sport’s best players, Tucker — in position to sign the right fielder for the long term and reward fans who view ownership as shaky.
Yet once again, Tom Ricketts is stuffing his front-office lieutenant with words that make people nervous. “You go into negotiations wanting to keep him. Obviously you realize you must have your limits,” said Hoyer, whose LIMITS are louder than the 512 runs the Cubs have scored as they soar to a 57-39 record. “We’ll keep all those things internal, but certainly I think Kyle is the kind of player you want to keep. I’ve said that all along.”
He wants details to remain “internal” about a superstar he wants “to keep” when fans would love to hear: We are the Cubs, we represent the No. 3 market in America, and we will not let Walter — who grew up in Cedar Rapids, started his investment firm in Chicago and still has an office on Monroe Street — or Steinbrenner or another no-limits owner march in and sign Tucker this offseason. Isn’t it time for Ricketts to prove he’s worthy of running a revenue machine, ready to spend $500 million or more in one sitting?
Or will he go cheap when the world is watching him, wondering if he’s real?
Tucker’s agent, Casey Close, will magnetize Juan Soto and his $765 million deal with Cohen and the Mets. He will check off Shohei Ohtani and his $700 million deal, including deferrals, with Walter and the Dodgers. Or, he’ll see Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $500 million extension with the Blue Jays. Does Ricketts actually think he can offer much less and keep Tucker? What was the point of acquiring him, for a one-year cheap run? Last year, the Cubs generated $584 million in revenue — third-highest in MLB, behind the Dodgers and Yankees. They entered the season with a $213 million payroll, meaning they are using only 36.4 percent of their earnings — the Mets are using 90 percent, the Dodgers are using 73 percent, the Blue Jays are using 71.5 percent.
The fans are aware of how Ricketts rehabbed Wrigley Field. Now it’s time to act like a monster operation instead of a tweener. Or, as they often say in Chicago, sell the damned team. Hoyer keeps using soft words. “We’ll talk with Casey about that at some point, but you ultimately have to go into the negotiation with a value,” he said. “You have to do that with any negotiation.”
The idea of a “negotiation” just sinks the town into the usual morose thinking. Jerry Reinsdorf is cheap. Michael Reinsdorf is cheap. The NFL McCaskeys cannot be cheap, but they’ve wanted public money to build a new stadium. Hoyer should be rewarded with a lengthy contract for finding Armstrong and bringing in Tucker. Now, Ricketts will let Walter or Steinbrenner offer yet another jackpot? In Atlanta for the All-Star Game, Tucker lets his agent do his job. On the happier side, he and his wife have introduced Chicago to the Kyle Tucker Foundation, as “the next chapter here in the Windy City.”
Next chapter? How about permanent chapter?
“I try and just come out here and do my part in helping this team win,” he said. “I’ve played with a different team other than this year. The group of guys in here — front office, staff have made it super easy for that transition.”
He told The Athletic, “I don't necessarily worry about it too much. If something happens, something happens. The only thing I can really control is just going out there and doing the best I can, putting up numbers and trying to help us win games. In my eyes, as long as I just try and do that, and do my part in helping us win, I feel like everything else just happens. I can’t really control something that’s not in my control or try to manipulate something or force something. … I’ll see some comments every now and then. I’m sure some people probably overanalyze and read between the lines a lot more than others.”
It’s a joy to watch Tucker and PCA in Tuesday’s starting lineup. Armstrong is the personality so desperately needed in baseball. He plays some of the best center-field defense we’ve seen. He’s capable of dying his hair and cutting patterns into it. He became the fastest Cub to reach the mark of 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases in a season. Only Eric Davis, Alfonso Soriano and Bobby Bonds reached the numbers quicker in the majors.
“PCA!” is one of the biggest chants in sports, not just at Addison and Clark. I can’t think of another sport with a similar character. All fun. “There’s growth to be had still,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Such a big part of how I want to see myself mature in the game is that — I want to be able to shorten the hard times, because they happen a lot. That’s a big conversation I’ve had all year.”
The chatter is only about Crow-Armstrong when the interviewer heads that way. He wants to discuss the Cubs, which has brought pride to Chicago in a town of sports losers. Want to engage in a serious debate at Murphy’s Bleachers? Who is the MVP in a race with Shohei Ohtani: Tucker or PCA?
We know who will dominate the Red Carpet outside Truist Park. PCA has a creative director who has worked with Serena Williams and NBA stars. What will he be wearing at 25? Again, someone had to ask. “I wear a lot of Adidas because I'm under contract with them for baseball. But I love Chrome Hearts,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don't have the money to buy a ton of that yet, but I think it's one of the coolest brands.” He also likes Fear of God and KidSuper.
Hair? “It's all natural — the curls are coming back. I'm going to keep it normal for my first All-Star Game,” he said.
In his mind, it’s much more important that the Cubs have the second-best record in the league and the third-best in baseball. Will they beat the Dodgers in October? “If I was to face the Cubs lineup, I think it would be a really tough lineup to face,” pitching ace Shota Imanaga said Sunday through an interpreter. “We have really good defense and just overall, great balance.”
“Our job is just to keep winning,” said manager Craig Counsell, who has been worth his $40 million. “I mean, it’s as simple as that. There’s so much season left. Just keep winning. Stack up wins, and we’re going to be in a good position.”
“Run differential, there’s both sides of the coin. There’s the offense that’s had such a good first half, but also the pitching and defense,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Our staff has been awesome. The bullpen has been unbelievable. And so it’s really led to such a great first half for us, and it’ll be important for us to continue to stay with that in order to go to the places that we want to go to.”
That would be the World Series. Here is where Ricketts cannot let his “negotiation” linger into the offseason, when he would lose Tucker to a no-limits team. He should be reminded by Cody Bellinger, who would make a dazzling lineup even more deadly. Instead, he was traded to the Yankees in a salary dump, with the Cubs paying Steinbrenner only $5 million as Ricketts pays most of his $52.5 million this year and next.
What a steal for the Yankees, who only gave up journeyman pitcher Cody Poteet, who is injured with Baltimore after he was designated for assignment. Friday night, Bellinger said hello to the Cubs with a three-homer game in the Bronx. “No revenge,” he said. “Honestly, ultimately, it was just fun to be out there. Saw a bunch of guys I haven’t seen in a while. I shared a bunch of good memories with them for the last two years. I loved my time there.”
Guess who reached above the right-field wall to rob him of a fourth shot.
Tucker.
“He timed it perfectly, Bellinger said. “I was a little sick about it, honestly.”
Consider it a haunting moment for Ricketts. Imagine if Tucker and Close say no for the rest of the season — and say yes to the Yankees in December.
The confines of limits would lose in Chicago, as usual, even in the Friendly Confines.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.