None of My Business, But…

Here’s what’s going to happen—all the armchair GMs and owners out there are going to bellyache how the Cubs passed on free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, who reportedly is going to the Red Sox on a three-year deal for $120 million. Give me a break. If I were a metrics’ guy, I could show how Bregman, age 31 by Opening Day, is slipping. Instead, all I can do is point out that the last time he cracked 100 RBIs was 2019 and he hasn’t hit over .262 his last three seasons. He does have a Gold Glove for 2024. The Cubs’ top prospect just so happens to be a third baseman, Matt Shaw, rated number 14 by Keith Law in The Athletic and number 19 by Sam Dykstra for mlb.com. What I’d like to ask the armchair experts is what they would do with the 23-year old Shaw if Bregman had gone to the North Side? Convert him to another position? Trade him? For this expert, the template for any organization should be to develop top talent; sign top talent to extensions; trade other young talent for youngish talent; and finish, rather than start, with free agents. Constructing a playoff-caliber roster around free agents is a fool’s task. Nobody wants to point out the emperor isn’t wearing anything or that the Yankees aren’t winning anything with this, then that, free agent signing. The Dodgers are winning by spending real big bucks, but I wonder. Their starting lineup could feature eight players 30-years old or more, and their pitching is a combination of young, old and untested. I like what the Orioles have done instead, except for the part where they don’t seem interested in extending all their young talent or finding the right free agent(s) to get them deep into the postseason. The Cubs have the money to build a first-rate minor-league system. Will they? I don’t know. But signing Bregman sure wouldn’t put them in the same class as the Dodgers, or Orioles, for that matter.