I know everyone wants the Cubs to be big players in free agency, but some of these deals for pitchers would have me running the other direction even if I had carte blanche to spend some billionaire’s money. Max Fried was being connected to the North Siders quite a bit in the early going of the offseason and some still believed there was a chance even though all conventional logic suggested otherwise. Sure enough, he joined the Yankees on an eight-year, $218 million deal that is pending a physical.
There’s no way in hell Jed Hoyer would have come anywhere near that deal, and I can’t say I blame him.