On Thursday, one of the Cubs owners acknowledged what we all knew but what the front office has specifically avoided saying: The lack of movement this winter has been created by a payroll budget limited by luxury-tax consideration.
“The longer you go over [the luxury tax], the more you’re paying,” chairman Laura Ricketts said Thursday at a Cubs Charities event at Horner Park Fieldhouse. “Yeah, we have some new revenue streams — [and] everything we make goes back into the team — but you don’t want to be spending it on fees and penalties, you want to be spending it on talent.