Chicago Cubs owner frustrates, doubling down on frugal philosophy in TV interview

A recent CNBC TV appearance from chairman of the Chicago Cubs and member of the owning Ricketts family, Tom Ricketts, did nothing to dispel that “cheapskate” criticism. However, Ricketts, whose public image is still in the dumps from his now infamous “we just try to break even every year” comments earlier in the year, would essentially double down on his frugal business policy:

“There are teams that have resources that we don’t, and (there is) nothing we can do about that. Fortunately for baseball, player development is as important as how much you’re spending on free agents. We just keep grinding and doing the blocking and tackling that build the organization from the bottom up and hopefully makes us competitive on a consistent basis.

…Our strategy has been the same since day one. And that’s be consistent and try to make the playoffs. Like you know, the fact is that in the NFL or the NBA, typically the team that had a better season during – a better regular season, almost always wins the playoff matchups. You know, things happen. Upsets happen. In baseball, what we want to do is just be consistent. We want to have it. We want to win our division every year, get to the playoffs. And I can’t do anything about what the dollar, what dollars other teams have. But what I can do is try to build an organization that keeps us consistently in that mix.”

Chicago Cubs: Aiming For The (Near) Top

That basically translates into the once widely-held philosophy that making the playoffs was enough in a wild baseball world where any team can get hot and anything can happen once in the postseason.

We’re seeing that belief fall by the wayside, however, as the Dodgers build a super team right before our eyes.

At any rate, it’s a tough sell to Cubs fans– as ticket prices go up, concessions go up, and games are put behind a paywall– that the goal is to be just good enough to contend and then hope for the best.

“Constraints”

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who is entering into the final year of his contract, has been diplomatic in talking up the budgetary philosophies handcuffing his ability to acquire talent. It doesn’t take an expert in linguistics, though, to read between the lines.

“We took it as a real challenge,” Hoyer told media in February, referring to this year’s active, but restrained offseason. “We knew we had certain constraints. How do we work within those constraints and continue to get better at the same time? Only time will tell if we were successful. But I feel good about what we accomplished this offseason, given that we had some constraints.”

All of this is bubbling up and will boil over if the Cubs once again fail to make the playoffs. Hoyer will likely be gone and possibly used as a scapegoat, but ownership– and their frugal ways– will still be there, trying to half-measure their way to a backdoor shot at a championship.