Cubs might have to get creative without budget for a winter splash

CHICAGO -- What happens when you don't have the money to fix something that's broken? Sometimes the answer is to find a creative solution instead. That's seemingly what the Chicago Cubs' front office is facing this winter as it attempts to improve its club without spending gobs of money on free agents.

As is, its payroll commitments for 2019 buck right up against the luxury-tax threshold, so the notion of spending on Bryce Harper -- a name Cubs fans have been salivating over since the day they realized he and third baseman Kris Bryant were friendly -- seems far-fetched. It wouldn't be if the team was willing to blow past the tax thresholds and commit to having one of the top two or three…