It’s no secret that the Cubs have struggled to draft and develop pitching, so it’s nice that they have been willing to spend freely to fill in the gaps. Sahadev wrote about the team’s struggles in December (subscription required, h/t Fangraphs), with a pretty remarkable chart.
The problem with this chart is pretty simple: contenders are not particularly interested in developing “MLB-quality” pitching, they are aiming for good pitching. Note the quality and rank order of teams on the list. In general, contenders tend to have fewer innings available for pitchers that are not expected to be good, but could surprise.