Column: Jerry Reinsdorf’s and Tom Ricketts’ spending patterns are on different paths as White Sox are ready to strike and Cubs have an eye to the future

Jerry Reinsdorf and Tom Ricketts could be the George Steinbrenners of modern baseball if they wanted.

The respective billionaire chairmen of the White Sox and Cubs certainly have enough money to spend wildly -- as Steinbrenner was prone to do with the Yankees every offseason -- exceeding the luxury tax and blowing past their smaller-market division rivals with more limited resources.

Both have profited handsomely from their initial investments into their baseball teams. The Ricketts family, one of the richest in America, paid $845 million to Tribune Media in 2009 for a franchise now worth an estimated $2.9 billion.

Reinsdorf has watched his franchise’s value balloon to an estimated $1.5 billion after making a small investment of around 4% to 5% in a limited partnership in 1981 that purchased the Sox from Bill Veeck for a bargain-basement price of $19 million.

One thing Cubs and Sox fans can agree on is both franchises know how to make money, even if we don’t always appreciate their spending patterns.

As the winter meetings got underway Monday in San Diego, the bosses of Chicago’s two clubs once again find themselves at a crossroads.

Is the future now, or can it wait a while longer?

Reinsdorf’s Sox are suddenly vaulting into spending mode after tanking the last three seasons while their prospects gained experience, while Ricketts’ Cubs are seemingly in cost-cutting mode after exceeding the luxury tax in 2019 and winding up with a disappointing third-place team.

Both Reinsdorf and Ricketts have come full circle since the last winter meetings here in 2014, when the Cubs were coming out of hibernation and throwing serious money around for the first time in the Ricketts era and the Sox were in the final throes of their annual band-aid approach to roster building that finally led to a full-scale rebuild after 2016.

Neither chairman will grace the Chicago media with his thoughts, though that doesn’t mean they have nothing interesting to say.

Reinsdorf told MLB Network’s Jon Heyman on Monday that he facetiously asked general manager Rick Hahn if he was “having a senior moment” after a reported conversation about signing free-agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Hahn assured Reinsdorf he was not, denying the rumored conversation took place.

That Reinsdorf can joke about his mental capacity at age 83 suggests he still has a sense of humor, which one probably needs after watching the rebuilding Sox and Bulls the last few seasons. Six years ago he told the Tribune he planned to own the Sox until “I don’t wake up or have no idea who Harold Baines is.”

Some of us are reluctant to concede we’re growing old and forgetful, but Hahn told USA Today that Reinsdorf has “more than one conversation” every week where he “reminds us how old he is and wondering how much longer he has to wait to get to the promised land.”

Reinsdorf presumably was referring to winning the World Series, not entering heaven. Clearly he wants to enjoy another Sox championship while he’s still healthy, wealthy and alive, so the newfound spending habits make perfect sense.

On the other side of town, Ricketts shocked Cubs fans recently when he spoke about the Wrigley Field renovations with Sports Business Journal, admitting “we probably missed our budget by 100%.” That translates to about $600 million over the original budget.

It was an amazing admission of budgetary ineptitude, especially considering president of business operations Crane Kenney remains gainfully employed by Ricketts while the Cubs got rid of the team’s yoga instructor.

Whether that stunning lack of financial planning plays into the expected roster changes on the North Side is pure conjecture, though president of baseball operations Theo Epstein pointed out those cost overruns occurred during a period of unparalleled success for the Cubs.

“The relevant years for (Ricketts’) statement, which I’m just hearing now, we spent a lot of money on players and won a World Series and developed a whole wave of talent,” Epstein said Monday. "So it hasn’t gotten in the way of winning, and we don’t expect it to.”

Maybe it didn’t affect the past, but the buzz at the winter meetings is Epstein will be downsizing payroll to sacrifice a couple of years for another extended postseason run down the road.

If players such as Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber are dealt, one agent predicted, the Cubs will expect multiple prospects in return instead of major-league-ready talent that can step in and keep the team in contention next year.

That might not make sense for an organization that is starting its own TV network in 2020 and has a vested interest in giving new manager David Ross a chance to succeed, so you can take that with a mouthful of salt, as Epstein might say.

Epstein insisted the Cubs intend on contending in 2020 and have enough talent even if there are significant roster changes.

“At the same time, we can’t just pretend we can keep putting off making some important decisions for the future,” he said. “If there is the opportunity to strike and help ensure a better future, we have to do that.

“But we also have to be very mindful of what’s on our roster right now and how we can complement it and put ourselves in the best possible position for 2020. Both things are important.”

But which avenue is more important is a question only Ricketts can answer.

___

(c)2019 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.