CHICAGO — During a blowout game on a frigid April night at Wrigley Field, the crowd chanted “CO-DY! CO-DY!” Cody Bellinger responded to the fans still hanging in there by blasting a home run off the right field video board. His return to the Chicago Cubs wasn’t scripted the way he would have pictured it. But as he kept waiting out in the cold as a free agent, the odds dramatically shifted toward a reunion.
“Rain, snow, cold, hot, they’re going to be out supporting,” Bellinger said. “That’s what makes it really special.”
The sentimental pitch, however, wasn’t really going to work on Bellinger and Scott Boras, the agent with a long history of landing nine-figure deals for his clients. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer instead waited patiently and positioned his team to be the fallback. That process of elimination, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said, factored in how baseball’s TV model is unraveling.
“Each fall, as we go into the offseason, Jed and I sit down and we try to determine which teams will be bidders for players that we’re interested in,” Kenney told 670 The Score, the team’s flagship radio station. “For instance, with Bellinger, a first baseman/center fielder, I give (Jed) my assessment based on what I know about the (other) teams’ financial health. Like, which teams could afford a contract like the one Bellinger’s going to get?
“Say there’s 10 teams I don’t think can afford him. And what Jed brings is: ‘Here are the teams that have a need either at center or first.’ So you try and create this sort of grid around: Of the 30 clubs, how many are likely to be bidding on Bellinger?”
This @Cody_Bellinger home run is brought to you by CUBS FANS.#YouHaveToSeeIt pic.twitter.com/zzlEqejRXa
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 3, 2024
The three teams the Cubs are facing on their current road trip help illustrate how Hoyer sensed an opportunity, and why Bellinger and Boras encountered headwinds.
• The San Diego Padres slashed payroll following an unprecedented spending spree and the death of chairman Peter Seidler, whose competitive spirit pushed the franchise into another financial stratosphere. Seidler was an owner who engaged with Boras and capitalized when the NFL’s Chargers moved to Los Angeles. After years of collecting stars — and neglecting other areas of the roster — the Padres traded Juan Soto and retrenched.
• The Seattle Mariners shuffled the deck while trying to salvage their local TV situation. The Mariners acquired full ownership of their regional sports network, ROOT Sports Northwest, while Xfinity bumped the cable channel to a premium tier, creating even more instability. Jerry Dipoto, Seattle’s president of baseball operations, also gave that cringey explanation about how Mariners fans should be happy if their team wins 54 percent of the time, illustrating the dispassion that has overtaken most front offices.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks focused on pitching after their surprising run to the World Series. At a time when teams are struggling to find capable two-way center fielders, the Diamondbacks have both Corbin Carroll and Alek Thomas under long-term club control. First base is covered with Christian Walker. The extra revenues from last year’s postseason success led the Diamondbacks to circle back and focus on another Boras client, pitcher Jordan Montgomery, making them an exception among the franchises proceeding with caution.
“I said to Jed, ‘There’s 10 teams that really can’t spend this year just because of what’s happening in the TV market,’” Kenney recalled on the “Mully & Haugh” show. “Their RSNs are either bankrupt or their rights have been returned. When they took those rights to the market, they got a fraction of what they were getting in prior years.
“We know all this. Because of revenue sharing, I see the financials for all 29 other clubs. If you one day want to know how much the
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