WHEN THE CUBS WANT TO IMPRESS TUCKER, WHY ARE THEY TRADING BELLINGER?
Only Ricketts and Hoyer would counteract a brilliant move for Tucker, giving $5 million to the elated Yankees and reminding us of the owner’s unwillingness to contend with baseball's big billionaires
The day started well. Wasn’t the Best Cub since Kris Bryant in his distant MVP season — if not Sammy Sosa, dare I mention the bastardized name — praising Wrigley Field and the franchise within? “I don’t think I could have gone to a much better organization than the Cubs,” Kyle Tucker said. “So I’m excited to start playing in front of the fans and in the city and everything else.”
A lovable buzz heightened. Jed Hoyer, the executive who acquired him from Houston, described Tucker alongside Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and the aristocracy of a sport. “One of the best players in baseball, period,” he said. “And obviously, to acquire a player like that, it comes at a real price. But it’s a price we were willing to pay given the fact it was something that we really wanted to bring to this team.”
You want breathtaking vibes? Tucker then was asked if he’s interested in a long-term extension in Chicago, which would produce between $450 million and $500 million in a stratosphere created by Soto’s $765 million contract with the Mets. Imagine landing a potential Hall of Famer by simply relinquishing a prospect, Cam Smith, in a deal including Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski. “Kind of like I’ve always said, I’m always open to talks to see where that leads,” Tucker said. “You never know what the future’s going to hold.”
Was Tom Ricketts about to pull out a blank contract, as the Cubs once did with Andre Dawson? Is this where a team with $503 million in revenue this year, third-highest in the major leagues, was serious about hanging with Steve Cohen and the Guggenheims in a monstrously priced National League? Was the owner, at long last, about to become an excessive billionaire?
No, this is where Ricketts is a dork.
Hell, they’re playing New Year’s Eve hockey at the Friendly Confines. We can laugh at anything, including the absurdity that Ricketts knows how to win another World Series when all he does is counteract something very cool. How did writer Ken Rosenthal refer to the owner and his family mates? “Dorks of the Week,” he said last week on a podcast, as if knowing how quickly they’d frustrate fans who’d been so elated.
Whatever the man’s name is — Poutine, Poteet, something that is not a dish of french fries and cheese curds — the Cubs finished the day reminding us of their mock pennant contention. They could have kept Cody Bellinger and paired him with Tucker, making the Dodgers and Mets believe they had decent competition in flyover territory. Instead, they traded him and sent $5 million to the Yankees, who will pay the rest of Bellinger’s deal — set for $52.5 million — the next two years. And they acquired pitcher Cody Poteet, who wouldn’t have made the staff in New York. The Dodgers, who once coveted Bellinger as a 2019 MVP, realize what Chicago has known all along: Ricketts is restricted by a self-induced luxury tax ridiculed by pennant-hungry wealth pushers.
Does Tucker realize he’s joining an owner who won’t pay him a shred of $500 million? Ricketts is hoping he breaks out and helps Craig Counsell win a NL Central title, but when it’s time to pay after next season, the Yankees will sweep him up. Never mind that Soto burned Hal Steinbrenner and partied down at Citi Field. The owner turned around and signed pitcher Max Fried to a $218 million deal for eight years, then traded for All-Star closer Devin Williams and acquired Bellinger.
“The job isn’t finished here,’’ general manager Brian Cashman declared. “Now is the time to strike.”
Cubdom? Consider what Counsell said in September, when the Milwaukee Brewers were clinching the division with ease. “I think the message sent is that there’s a big gap,” he said. “They’re ahead of us by a lot. And it’s a talented team on and off the field. And we’ve got room to make up. There’s no question about it. … We should try to be building 90-win teams here. That’s what you have to do; that’s the playoff standard. That’s what you’ve got to get to be safely in the playoffs, safely in the tournament. So from that perspective, we’ve got a ways to go.”
Which way? That’s always the question. Hoyer has added Tucker, for a trip to Japan and a regular season of six months. The Cubs should win the simplistic Central, but will they? In baseball’s circle of life, 27 franchises are relegated by the Yankees, Dodgers and Mets. The Cubs are one of them. Bellinger was Comeback Player of the Year in 2023, hitting .307 with 26 home runs, 97 RBIs and an .881 OBP. He might have avoided injuries next season and overcome his issues with North Side conditions, particularly in a lineup fortified by Tucker.
Rather, the Cubs will continue with Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch, with hopes for Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw. That isn’t nearly enough to compete with the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Braves and Padres. If Hoyer manages to sign Roki Sasaki, hallelujah. Sure. The Dodgers remain the favorites for the pitcher, followed by the Padres and Mets.
How nice of Tucker to make glorious remarks. But in due time, when he might want a prodigious extension, he’ll be told to wait until the offseason. That’s when the pinstripes overtake Ricketts — 27 World Series titles versus one since 1908.
“A lot of things in life and sports and everything kind of is what it is, stuff happens and whatnot,” Tucker said. “Some stuff is out of your control, but you’ve just got to make the most with it.”
He is a Cub. Making the most of it means enjoying life as a rental.
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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.