No matter what Cubs do this Hot Stove season, last year’s failures hang over like a dark cloud

If the Cubs truly aren’t able to afford the top free agents on the open market this offseason, the main reason for that is because they’ve had to spend so much money in free agency on pitching the last few years. It’s also because they swung and missed in a major way last winter and are still feeling the effects.

The Cubs entered last winter feeling pretty good about the state of their offense but wanted to augment the pitching staff in a big way. So they went out and handed $198 million to Tyler Chatwood ($38 million), Brandon Morrow ($21 million), Steve Cishek ($13 million) and Yu Darvish ($126 million). They also paid Drew Smyly $3 million in 2018 to rehab from Tommy John surgery before he and the $7 million remaining on his deal were shipped off to the Texas Rangers last month.

The four free agent pitchers (not including Smyly, who didn’t throw a single pitch) combined for 1.1 WAR (FanGraphs) across 244.2 innings in 2018.

Alternatively, cleaning out the vents will get rid of much of that dark cloud in a hurry, especially if they open up a window.