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
The respective billionaire chairmen of the
Both have profited handsomely from their initial investments into their baseball teams. The Ricketts family, one of the richest in America, paid
Reinsdorf has watched his franchise’s value balloon to an estimated
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
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
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
Some of us are reluctant to concede we’re growing old and forgetful, but Hahn told
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
It was an amazing admission of budgetary ineptitude, especially considering president of business operations
Whether that stunning lack of financial planning plays into the expected roster changes on the
“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
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
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.
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