Every day the White Sox wait and worry about losing Manny Machado to the highest free-agent bidder, the Cubs come closer to keeping Kris Bryant off the open market in 2021.
That’s merely an opinion rather than fact, hypothesis more than hyperbole. That’s one way to interpret the slog the Major League Baseball offseason has become, the local prism through which to view this extended period of inactivity. That’s impossible to prove or disprove but compelling to consider.
In an ironic twist, baseball’s winter of Bryce Harper and Machado ultimately might help the suddenly budget-conscious Cubs nab a blockbuster free agent after all: Bryant.