On a 670 The Score radio hit today to announce the extension of the Cubs’ radio broadcast rights, business president Crane Kenney was asked about, among other things, the team’s financial ability to add from here, particularly on the starting pitching front where there are obvious needs.
Typically, Kenney is cagey on any specifics, as the baseball side runs the baseball side, and the business side runs the business side. But with baseball and business ops so clearly intertwined this offseason – the budget has been tightened by the pandemic impact – maybe Kenney felt a little more comfortable dropping in response to the pitching question and the budget:
“Yeah, there’s room to add some pitching. I know Jed’s been working pretty hard. We talk every day, and we understand that the pitching is a place we need to spend a little more time and a little more money, and he’s got some conversations ongoing. I’d be very surprised if we were done on the pitching side.”
So, that’s about as close as a business president can get to saying, yeah, we will add another free agent starting pitcher, without actually saying that.
None of this should be a shock, after the revelation that the budget opened up a bit recently, and after Jed Hoyer made it very clear that the team felt like it needed to add pitching. There are still interesting options on the market, too, from higher-end guys like Jake Odorizzi and James Paxton and Taijuan Walker, to reunion guys like Jake Arrieta and Jeff Samardzija and Rich Hill and Cole Hamels, to buy-low bounce-back guys like Julio Teheran and Rick Porcello and Tyler Anderson.
The Cubs will add someone – there is just too obvious of a need, too many innings to cover, and too many interesting options out there. The big question for me is whether they’ll seek specifically to add a guy who brings a very different look to a rotation that otherwise has a very similar profile among its starters.