CHICAGO -- Jed Hoyer was encouraged by how the Chicago Cubs finished the year.
What that means going forward, well, that remains to be seen.
Speaking for the first time since Chicago completed its second straight losing season, Hoyer talked Monday about building on the team's 40-31 finish. But the Cubs' president of baseball operations also returned to the ambiguous concept of "intelligent spending" -- which could price the big-market club out of the massive contracts at the top end of the free agent market.
"We want to build something lasting and we want to build something that we're proud of for a long time," Hoyer said, "and I think that you can get caught up in our game in transactions that feel really good in the short term and don't make long-term sense.