Chicago Cubs ripped by MLB insider over failing Alex Bregman push

The Chicago Cubs have been getting hammered lately as their name has become a mere whisper of a rumor when it comes to the pursuit of the top remaining free agent talent.

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As recently as a couple of weeks ago, the team was heavily linked to third baseman Alex Bregman, as well as to a small handful of top-tier starting pitchers. Right now, though, there’s been almost dead silence when it comes to their pursuit of those stars. As a matter of fact, the Cubs, by all accounts, have fallen well behind in the race to sign these impact players.

Case in point is their reported interest in Bregman.

Not too long ago, Chicago was regarded as one of the favorites to land the three-time All-Star. Now, they’re not even regarded as one of the top two teams in the chase. They may not even be a top three suitor for the veteran infielder.

The same (sad) Bregman story as last year

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This dynamic appears to be frustratingly similar to how their pursuit of a free agent Bregman last offseason turned out– lots of buzz and promise early on before the actual money talk sorted out the pretender suitors from the contender suitors. Bregman would eventually sign a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, with an opt-out after his first year leading to a second straight offseason of the star peddling himself on the open market.

Jesse Rogers, in a collaborative piece with Buster Olney for ESPN on Tuesday, quoted one unnamed MLB executive as saying: “If it was down to Toronto and Arizona before, maybe it’s now Boston or Arizona.”

Olney, in that same ESPN report, talked about Boston’s urgency in re-signing a player they saw as a team leader and a key component to their future success.

Per Olney:

“The Boston Red Sox want Bregman and have signaled a willingness to pay him big money — perhaps something in the range of what the Tigers offered him last spring, a six-year, $171.5 million deal.”

Anger and frustration

The buzz over Boston’s apparent urgency in signing Bregman, juxtaposed with the Cubs’ perceived lack of urgency and unwillingness to spend, has left many with some pretty unpleasant things to say.

FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray summed up the general vibe in a recent edition of the Baseball Insiders podcast.

Per Murray:

“You need to make a splash because, I mean, you’re the Chicago Cubs…You’re a big market team. You shouldn’t be losing the division as big as they did to the Milwaukee Brewers. They should go out and spend, act like a big market team. And to me, that involves either signing Bregman, signing Bellinger, or just doing something big because they need to do something.”

The Cabrera trade vs. the free agent fails

Does the trade with the Miami Marlins for Edward Cabrera, which, as of this writing, has been reported by two well-respected insiders via Twitter/X, qualify as “something big?”

Maybe. You can give them that.

But, really, even a high-profile trade like that doesn’t absolve the Cubs of the sin of going cheap when they have the money to spend, the revenue to draw from, a clear set of needs, and a team that finished last year just one game away from making the NLCS.

At this point, it’s a tired refrain, but the Cubs are simply not spending like a major market team– at least not one truly serious about winning.

The post Chicago Cubs ripped by MLB insider over failing Alex Bregman push appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-alex-bregman-free-agents