Jed Hoyer and the Chicago Cubs have shown a complete unwillingness to step even an inch outside their comfort zone in recent offseasons. A refusal to include early opt-outs or defer money has the front office working with one hand behind its back at all times - and it's led to countless misses on top free-agent targets.
We're talking about one of the most profitable - and valuable - franchises not only in Major League Baseball, but all of professional sports. For the better part of a decade, now, Tom Ricketts has refused to give Hoyer a budget commensurate with either of those things, forcing him to think more like the Cleveland Guardians or Milwaukee Brewers than the New York Yankees or Philadelphia Phillies.