Now that all the various Cubs free-agent and contract option decisions have been made and the 40-man roster stands at 34 players, it’s time to take a look at the team payroll for 2021 and also how those figures will affect any luxury tax the Cubs will pay.
The novel coronavirus pandemic upended baseball in every possible way in 2020 — games played, no fans, payrolls — and it’s very likely that the game in 2021 will be similarly affected. While there have been schedules issued for both Spring Training and the regular season for next year, there’s no guarantee those games will be played as scheduled and even if they are, there could be some, many or all played without fans, which will affect total revenue for ballclubs.