Cubs positioned to make biggest impact in free agency

(Getty Images) In a reminder that baseball season never truly ends, free agency is already officially underway in Major League Baseball.

As of 12:01 am ET Saturday, players eligible for free agency are now free to negotiate and sign with any team, meaning that chaos could conceivably break loose at any given moment.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we should expect to hear any big news on Saturday or even in the next few days. The process has begun, but that process can take a good while to complete as the various markets begin to play out. Sometimes all it takes is for one domino to fall. Sometimes it takes getting to the Winter Meetings, where top free agents often hear everyone’s best pitch in rapid succession. And sometimes it’s a true marathon, with big names waiting as long as February to put ink to paper.

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The process itself can be very unpredictable, but the teams best positioned to make a splash are often crystal clear. Of course, the usual suspects are always involved. Those include the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, and to a lesser degree the Cardinals and Angels. But every year there’s a team, and sometimes a handful of teams, that are prepared to transition from rebuilders to buyers and are positioned to make a splash that they hope will push them over the top.

Heading into this winter, that team appears to be the Chicago Cubs.

After years of rebuilding, the Cubs are definitely contenders, which means president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer are ready and willing to put big money on the table and take command of the market.

Granted, they got a head start last winter by signing Jon Lester to a six-year, $155 million deal. This winter, they sound poised to go all-in after the Cubs finished four wins short of the franchise’s first World Series appearance since 1945. That means numerous big name free agents could be in play for Chicago, but the focus will be on pitching after falling to the Mets big four in the NLCS.

“We want to add at least one [major leaguer] but we do need to impact our starting pitching depth,” general manager Jed Hoyer said Friday afternoon in the Cubs offices across the street from Wrigley Field. “We will look to add multiple starting pitchers at various levels of the organization. That’s the best way to say it.”

Manager Joe Maddon pieced things together behind Lester and likely NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta as long he could. The Cubs managed to win 97 games during the regular season, a wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, but their lack of rotation depth caught up to them against New York.

Will David Price wear Cubbie blue in 2016 and beyond? (AP) One more reliable starter may have given Chicago a fighting chance in that series. Now Hoyer and company will look to make sure that option exists for Maddon in 2016, and they’ll have a lengthy list of free agent starters to pick from. The top available arms include David Price, Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann and Johnny Cueto. There’s even a Jeff Samardzija out there if the Cubs were interested in doing business again, not to mention Kenta Maeda should he end up posted.

As Hoyer indicated, the deep list opens up the possibility of adding multiple starters to the mix. Even if that pushes them into the secondary market, names like Mike Leake, Yovani Gallardo and John Lackey can provide some nice value as well. If they add one from each tier, it will change the dynamic of their rotation completely and solidify them as early World Series favorites.

The World Series is definitely Chicago’s goal, and the front office fully realizes now is the time to make the charge they’ve been building for. That’s why nothing will hold them back, not even the risk of losing a draft pick on a qualified free agent.

“The draft pick is important but at the same time when you’re in a winning window, you have to look at that consideration different,” Hoyer said. “The qualifying offer is a consideration as we think about signing a free agent, but at the same time 2016 and beyond are very important years to us. We have a really good core of young players. I think we are a team poised to win. I think that’s the most important factor to consider in free agency.”

Music to a fanbase’s ear. Especially one that’s been waiting going on 108 years for a championship.

Another thing working for the Cubs is their organization depth. That will allow them to explore trades if free agency doesn’t satisfy their pitching needs, and it allows them to get creative if a position player they like falls to them in free agency.

It’s essentially the perfect offseason storm. Every option they could possibly want to explore will be available. They have young talent in abundance, money to spend and the absolute best people around making the decisions.

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