The Cubs Were so Disgustingly Cheap This Offseason They Refused to Match Reds' Weak Offer to Pedro Strop
By Jack Murphy
The Chicago Cubs were one of the teams that surprisingly made no noise this MLB offseason. With the exception of the Kris Bryant rumors (which were in fact a bad look for the club) the Cubs spent pretty much nothing in free agency and made no trades.
We knew they had budget restrictions coming into 2020, but THIS bad?
Cincinnati Reds reliever Pedro Strop recently revealed the reason why the Cubs were unable to re-sign him. He simply did not fit in Chicago's budget. The Cubs wanted to sign the 34-year-old, but they wouldn't match what the Reds offered him.
Strop said the Cubs tried “very hard” to sign him, but they did not have enough room in the budget to match what he got from Reds.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) March 4, 2020
Told that Javy moved into his AZ locker, Strop laughed and joked that it probably still smells like him because of how much cologne he uses.
They didn't have $1.9 million lying around to sign a reliever ... an area of need for the team?
Instead, Strop will now be pitching for a division rival as the Cubs look to work out their internal issues with not many solutions on hand.
Reds pitcher Pedro Strop got a kick out of his former Cubs teammates heckling him Wednesday.
— Chicago Tribune Sports (@ChicagoSports) March 5, 2020
“They were yelling: ‘He stinks.’ It was getting my attention. Usually I’m really focused and look like I’m mad. But today I couldn’t do that."https://t.co/S5aO10YAQH
None of the players spoke up about this? Strop seemed to have a good relationship with his teammates considering they had fun heckling him in good spirit on Wednesday. Instead of keeping some solid chemistry intact, the Cubs wouldn't spend pennies to keep a mainstay of their bullpen in Chicago.