There’s always next year, well, unless you are the Chicago Cubs. For the Cubs, there’s always 2020.
That’s the next time the team will be able to spend significant money in free agency, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The team is locked into a long-term television deal with CSN and can’t offer a full-season package to potential buyers until 2020. Without those lucrative TV dollars, it will be difficult to turn around the struggling franchise.
‘‘We’ll see,’’ Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said of the team’s ability to spend big before then. ‘‘I mean, we’ll know a lot more about what our media-rights options are as the year goes forward. I’m not really sure.’’
The Cubs brought in former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and made him team president in 2011. But the franchise is still in the early stages of a rebuilding project that saw the payroll go from $134 million in 2011 down to $92 million this year.
The biggest investment is the $500 million going into the renovation of Wrigley Field and the area around it.
‘‘The way we look at it is, if you’re going to put the dollars in, you want to put it into something that has a long-term return,’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘We think the renovation of the ballpark is $30 [million] to $40 million in incremental revenue per year.’’
According to the report, even Epstein has acknowledged building around the potential in the Cubs’ farm system — led by power-hitting infield prospects Javier Baez and Kris Bryant — may not be enough to revive the franchise.
‘‘Obviously, attendance is somewhat correlated to wins, right?’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘So a better team would help some. But for us, the focus is to do the things right for the long term.’’