Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle
The Cubs were a good team with excellent pitching on the verge of being great and went out and added Heyward and Zobrist to fill the glaring holes in their lineup (Lackey was the cherry on top). Needing a 1st basemen and and outfielder.........seems familiar
They didn't go and add a bunch of 35+ year olds on short/one year contracts, they went and got guys who were in their prime on long term contracts. And guess what, if it hadn't worked out, they could move both those piece to another team and move on.
The Chicago Cubs payroll was 171M. Not much more than the Jays just enough to fill some glaring holes, which comes back to the age old saying, the Jays need to #### or get off the pot.
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Did the cubs, though?
Seems most of that team was the "core" from the rebuild - Bryant, Rizzo, Soler, Russell.
They went after Heyward, paid him god awful money and watched that crash and burn.
They took a flyer on Fowler after his deal fell through - gave him a one year deal. Zobrist was 34 when he signed his deal and gets paid until 38. John Lackey signed last year at 37.
They could also add those guys to longer terms because their core is like 25 years old. Not 30 like the jays.
Donaldson, Tulo, Edwin, Estrada, MArtin, Happ, Liriano - all these guys have few years left at greatness. when they bottom out, it may not be the best time to have a gamble like Heyward on your roster.