Given how many times we’ve heard about this year’s “budget,” and how Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry “does not have the money” to make certain moves, it is reasonable to question whether the team is completely locked in as is, regardless of how the team performs, how things play out, and who might become available during the season.
Owner Tom Ricketts was cagey when asked about the subject, but manager Lou Piniella was confident.
New Cubs owner/chairman Tom Ricketts, in town with his co-owner siblings to address the team and check out potential new spring-training sites, said the family ”possibly” would be willing to increase the team’s tapped payroll budget to add players at the trading deadline.
”We’ll take that one day at a time,” he said.
Manager Lou Piniella seemed a little more confident.
”We’ve got probably the fourth- or fifth-highest payroll in baseball, so the commitment is there from a monetary standpoint,” Piniella said, praising what he has seen so far. ”They’re very competitive, and I’m sure that if we get in position during the course of the summer and we need something, there’s a darn good chance they’ll step forward.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
The thing is, Ricketts is a businessman. He’s a fan, sure, but given the crazy amount of debt his family took on to purchase the Cubs, he’s not going to go spend-crazy quite yet. That said, if the Cubs are in it, and there’s a move out there that clearly puts them in a better position to make a deep playoff run, the right business decision is to make the move and temporarily expand the payroll.