The Cubs have shown a willingness to trade from their surplus of hitters to fix the ninth inning, shipping out their best prospect (Gleyber Torres) last summer to have Aroldis Chapman in the playoffs and flipping Jorge Soler to the Kansas City Royals at the winter meetings for one season of Wade Davis.
But generally speaking, Theo Epstein’s front office is philosophically against the idea of handing out a big-money, long-term contract to a guy who works one inning at a time, the way the New York Yankees did a record-setting, five-year, $86 million megadeal to bring back Chapman.