(670 The Score) With his team holding a 58-82 record entering play Monday in a rebuilding season, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts continues to have strong confidence about the organization's future and its infrastructure.
Ricketts stressed Saturday that the logical way to build a winner is through scouting and the development of homegrown players, and the Cubs are in the middle of that process once again.
"We are following a similar process or strategy that we did 10 years ago," Ricketts told reporters. "Having done it once, largely with the same people, it gives me a lot of confidence that we'll do it the right way again."
The difference this time is the Cubs have a greater emphasis on producing homegrown pitching. In the build-up to winning the World Series in 2016 and the accompanying era, the Cubs used their highest draft capital on position players and acquired their best pitchers through lucrative deals in free agency and in trades.
The Cubs' goal in the present is to fortify their team in free agency after setting the foundation with young talent.
"The fact is you can't buy a championship team in baseball," Ricketts told reporters. "You have to build it."
The progress of 27-year-old right-hander Keegan Thompson (3.97 ERA in 104 1/3 innings) and 27-year-old left-hander Justin Steele (3.18 ERA in 119 innings) have been positive developments for the Cubs, who have also received contributions from young pitchers like left-hander Brandon Hughes, right-hander Javier Assad and right-hander Hayden Wesneski.
"With Keegan and Justin, we are very happy with the seasons they have had," president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said recently. "We want them to be strong and healthy for 2023, so we aren't going to force them back for now (after injuries). Our goal is to get them into the offseason healthy and start their conditioning and throwing programs for next year. Both have real goals this offseason they want to reach."
The Cubs signed outfielder Seiya Suzuki and right-hander Marcus Stroman to lucrative deals last offseason. Hoyer had the freedom to spend more money in free agency last winter, sources said, but he didn't believe the rebuild had progressed to a place where that was the best use of resources.
He could be more aggressive this upcoming offseason.
"You will ask what our plans are for free agency and rightfully so," Hoyer said. "But for us having a lot of information out there of what we want to do, it doesn't generally help our purpose that well (to share the plan). You want to talk to agents for players and trades with other clubs under some shroud of secrecy. We do want to show that we will be aggressive. There is no question there are some holes on the team we would like to fill. Our young guys have provided a lot of nice stories and stepped forward. Many have shown now that they are a part of our plans, but those other holes, we are clearly going to try and fill them. We have talked about where we are financially. All that is true. We still would like to keep some of that under the radar."
The Cubs' farm system is also in a strong position, with three players – high Class-A outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, Triple-A outfielder Brennen Davis and Class-A outfielder Kevin Alcantara – rated among the best 100 prospects in baseball.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
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