The Chicago Cubs went over the salary threshold in 2019 by some $28.8 million according to Spotrac and that’s going to cost the team some $6 to $7 million in luxury tax penalties. Team president and owner Tom Ricketts hates that. On 670 The Score Wednesday, he said paying the tax is “a dead-weight loss” that just helps other teams.
Heading into 2020 the financial picture doesn’t look any brighter. Again, according to Spotrac the Cubs are already more than $3.0 million over the 2020 threshold of $208 million if they have correctly assessed the arbitration levels for several key players.