GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Pedro Strop never wanted to leave the Cubs, but at the end of the winter, they couldn’t match even the modest $1.825 million deal he got from the rival Reds.
“They did try hard to bring me back. It’s just money-wise, they couldn’t, because they weren’t allowed [with] all the salary cap stuff; they wanted to try to stay below,” Strop said of baseball’s luxury-tax threshold after pitching a 1-2-3 inning against his old friends.
“You could see they haven’t signed anybody over $1 million. I don’t feel bad, like, ‘Oh, they don’t want me no more,’ because they were there.