{"id":43395,"date":"2025-03-23T00:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T00:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=43395"},"modified":"2025-03-23T00:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T00:40:51","slug":"tom-ricketts-latest-bryce-harper-revelations-called-insult-to-cubs-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=43395","title":{"rendered":"Tom Ricketts’ Latest Bryce Harper Revelations Called ‘Insult to Cubs Fans’"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/main>Since 2016, when the Chicago Cubs won\u00a0the franchise’s first World Series\u00a0in 108 years, the team has quickly declined into mediocrity.<\/p>\n

While the Cubs won the National League Central Division in 2017 and advanced to the NL Championship Series, where they\u00a0lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, they have appeared in the postseason just twice since \u2014 and one of those was in the 2020 COVID year when the playoff field was\u00a0expanded from six to eight teams\u00a0per league.<\/p>\n

The Cubs have now missed the postseason for four straight years \u2014 and they are off to an 0-2 start already in 2025 after losing both games of the\u00a0season-opening Tokyo Series\u00a0against the Dodgers in Japan.<\/p>\n

The reasons for the Cubs’ drop-off are complicated, of course, but one big one has been the reluctance\u00a0of owner Tom Ricketts\u00a0to open up his checkbook and spend big money to acquire top players.\u00a0In 2021, SB Nation writer Bill Thompson\u00a0accused Ricketts of having “used the Cubs exactly as intended: to make boatloads of profits. Unfortunately those profits have only resulted in an ownership unwilling to continue to try and put the best product on the field.”<\/p>\n

\n

In an\u00a0interview with CNBC this week, Ricketts made comments in which he seemed to say that in the 2018-2019 offseason, the Cubs “spent a lot of time” determining whether to go after that year’s most sought-after free agent, former Washington Nationals Rookie of the Year, MVP and\u00a0six-time All-Star Bryce Harper.<\/p>\n

“That’s one we kicked around, but obviously never executed on,” Ricketts said in the interview.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Cubs made only three free agent signings that offseason, with the biggest being\u00a0second baseman Daniel Descalso, who was inked to a two-year, $5 million deal. In other words, the Cubs were simply never in on Harper or any impact free agents in 2019.<\/p>\n

That was the offseason when the San Diego Padres, who had never \u2014 and still have never \u2014 won a World Series signed third baseman Manny Machado to a\u00a0record 10-year, $300 million contract.<\/p>\n

More MLB:\u00a0Cubs’ $1.5 Million Free Agent Requests Release, Becomes Free Agent: Report<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That record was eclipsed about a month later when, in early March, Harper signed with the\u00a0Philadelphia Phillies for $330 million\u00a0over 13 years. Since signing with the Phillies, Harper has added a second MVP award and two more All-Star selections. He\u00a0ranks fifth among all\u00a0active players in career OPS (.960), seventh in\u00a0offensive WAR (49.9), and seventh\u00a0in home runs (336).<\/p>\n

Jordan Campbell of the Fansided site Cubbies Crib called Ricketts’ claim that he even considered signing Harper\u00a0“an insult to Cubs fans.”<\/p>\n

“Given the Cubs’ spending the offseason Harper was a free agent, and their spending habits since, it’s very clear the team never had any real interest in signing the superstar despite the planning that Ricketts said took place,” Campbell wrote on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner of the Chicago Cubs says he considered signing Bryce Harper in 2019, but a look at that year’s offseason shows his comments are hollow, one writer says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nTom Ricketts' Latest Bryce Harper Revelations Called 'Insult to Cubs Fans' - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=43395\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Ricketts' Latest Bryce Harper Revelations Called 'Insult to Cubs Fans' - 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