The Chicago Cubs have not shied away from waiting out the free-agent market in previous offseasons.

It’s an approach that at times has paid off, when how they value a player aligns with the years and financial commitment for the contract. The Cubs are taking that same steady approach, even if that means failing to land the top available players. It’s not what fans will want to hear as they look for the organization to build off a 92-win season and falling just short of the National League Championship Series.

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The front office, though, is deliberate in its approach. How that might play out in free agency or through a trade to acquire an impactful starting pitcher, rebuilding the bullpen and potentially finding a power bat for the lineup will start to take shape in the coming weeks and in the lead-up to spring training.

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“If you have a really low (average annual value), long-term deals make a ton of sense, if you have really high AAVs, they start making less and less sense,” general manager Carter Hawkins said last week at the winter meetings. “Philosophically, I’m not against it, but if you value the player and think about how he’s going to value over year over year and you’re paying more than you think he’s worth, I’m definitely against that, and that definitely happens with all players.

“You want to be disciplined but you don’t want to be rigid, and we have to be agile and understand that we don’t have everything perfect and we might have to make changes in our context, change our needs, change the leverage of bringing in particular players, reliever, starters, position players, all of those things change. You have to factor all that in as you’re thinking about how much you would give a player or how many players you would give away to get a player.”

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Here are four things we heard from the Cubs last week at the winter meetings.

1. Bullpen remains a focus.

Building the bullpen is expected to be an endeavor that tests the Cubs’ ability to find relievers through different avenues, given how many arms they need for the pen and minor-league depth.

After signing veteran right-hander Phil Maton to a two-year deal last month, the Cubs added another reliever last week by signing left-hander Hoby Milner, a source confirmed to the Tribune. Milner, 34, spent three seasons in Milwaukee with manager Craig Counsell (2021-23) and is coming off a 2025 campaign with the Texas Rangers in which he posted a 3.84 ERA in 73 appearances.

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Projecting who might be used as Counsell’s high-leverage arms is too hard to project with so many unknowns still surrounding what the bullpen could look like. However, Counsell expects Maton to pitch in leverage spots.

“The bullpen, what we thought about our bullpen going into the season — maybe what we thought, we were wrong, we were pretty wrong on it,” Counsell said at the winter meetings. “We ended up pitching pretty well. But I think at the start of the season, it maybe wasn’t the guys we expected to do it. It just shows, get a bunch of good arms and kind of see what happens and have enough abilities to pivot when you have to during the season.”

Counsell envisions a bounce-back season from Porter Hodge being an important piece to how the bullpen shakes out.

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2. Building a better bench a challenging priority.

The Cubs were among the healthiest in the majors for their starting position-player group.

Beyond the injuries to Kyle Tucker and Miguel Amaya, the Cubs largely didn’t need to rely on their bench options much aside from the situations Counsell opted to use veteran Justin Turner as a pinch hitter for Michael Busch. The Cubs know there could be a big health regression because of the flukiness that can happen year to year with injuries.

The Cubs, though, don’t have many platoon at-bats to offer prospective appealing bench players who would give them the best depth to lessen the drop-off from one of their starting position players.

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“There’s a lot of players who want to establish themselves or reestablish themselves as everyday players, and when you’re offering them a not everyday role, they’re kind of thinking, OK, what are the odds they might even get a chance to do that?” Hawkins said. “Now, you could overpay someone in order to do that role part time, but then there’s opportunity cost of those dollars. So therein lies the challenge.”

Optimally, Hawkins added, players come up from the minors to fill those bench roles and learn to matriculate into the big leagues effectively.

“But, yeah, it’s an interesting problem to have,” Hawkins said. “I think you saw it with teams like ours, or teams like the Braves, where you have this very set position player group, and we’re not an attractive spot for someone that necessarily can go play multiple positions, but that can also change on a dime.

“So it’s trying to sell the environment to the player, trying to sell just how we potentially would use him. I think having Craig Counsell really helps that he’s able to articulate those roles really effectively. He was in those roles a lot as a player, so that offsets a little bit of it. But given where our roster is right now, it’s a harder sell.”

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3. High praise for Moisés Ballesteros.

The Cubs are confident Ballesteros can hit in the majors.

That belief gives the organization an internal backup plan if they don’t acquire a more proven hitter in the coming months. Counsell called Ballesteros and top prospect Owen Caissie important players for 2026, at least with how the roster currently is constructed. Ballesteros in particular is well-positioned to begin the season in the majors.

“He’s at the point where if he can help the major-league team, he’s going to be in the major leagues,” Counsell said of Ballesteros. “There’s not an everyday catching job in the major leagues for him. But as constructed right now, we’ve got room for at-bats, and I would prioritize the major leagues right now. But that can change with roster stuff.”

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Only 22, Ballesteros impressed the Cubs in his 20 big-leagues games. Pending offseason moves, Seiya Suzuki is expected to shift back to right field, creating a need at designated hitter. Ballesteros started just once behind the plate in the majors last season, and his performance was encouraging. The Cubs will look to continue to get him action at catcher if he is part of the big-league team, though it won’t be frequent at No. 3 on depth chart behind Carson Kelly and Amaya.

4. Quantifying Nico Hoerner’s value.

Coming off a career-best season that saw him win his second Gold Glove Award, Hoerner was a key cog in helping the Cubs return to the postseason for the first time since 2020.

His effect on the Cubs might be difficult for other teams to fully quantify, but his intensity and steadiness doesn’t go unnoticed by people within the organization. From his bat-to-ball skills, leadership and elite defense at second base, it could prove valuable to the Cubs to find middle ground and extend Hoerner, who turns 29 in May. Hoerner, earning $12 million in 2026, is entering the final year of the three-year, $35 million deal he signed in March 2023.

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“Everybody has their own intangible qualities,” Counsell said. “Nico is great at some really things that I think other people think they’re good at and they’re not as good at it. I’m not talking about just players, I’m just talking about people. Like when you say show up every day and like complete every rep, every rep is completed perfectly. That’s who Nico is. And that seems like, well, that’s easy, everybody can do that, I do that. Well, you don’t do it. I would put Nico at the top of the list for how he does that.

“In a sport like baseball, with so many games and so many moments, it shows up a lot. It’s a great trait to have, and it’s what made Nico a very good baseball player.”