What we heard at the winter meetings

The Chicago Cubs haven’t been shy about waiting out the free agent market in past offseasons.

It’s an approach that has sometimes paid off, when the way they value a player matches the years and financial commitment of the contract. The Cubs are taking the same consistent approach, even if it means failing to draft the best players available. That’s not what fans will want to hear as they look for the organization to build on a 92-win season and fall just short of the National League Championship Series.

The front office, however, has a deliberate approach. How this could play out in free agency or through a trade to acquire an impactful starting pitcher, rebuild the bullpen and potentially find a power bat for the lineup will begin to take shape in the coming weeks and as spring training approaches.

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“If you have very low (average annual value), long-term deals make a lot of sense, if you have very high AAVs, they start to make less and less sense,” CEO Carter Hawkins said last week at the winter meetings. “Philosophically I’m not against it, but if you value the player and think about how he’s going to value himself from year to year and you pay more than you think he’s worth, I’m definitely against that, and it certainly happens to all players.

“You want to be disciplined but you don’t want to be rigid, and we have to be nimble and understand that we don’t have everything perfect and we may have to make changes in our context, change our needs, change the leverage by bringing in particular players, relievers, starters, position players, all of those things change. You have to take all of that into account when you think about how much you would give to a player or how many players you would give to get a player.”

Here are four things we heard from the Cubs last week during the winter meetings.

1. Bullpen remains a priority.

Building the bullpen should be an effort that will test the Cubs’ ability to find relievers through different routes, given the number of weapons they need for the bullpen and the depth of the minor leagues.

After signing veteran right-hander Phil Maton to a two-year contract last month, the Cubs added another reliever last week by signing left-hander Hoby Milner, a source confirmed to the Tribune. Milner, 34, spent three seasons in Milwaukee under manager Craig Counsell (2021-23) and is coming off a 2025 campaign with the Texas Rangers in which he posted a 3.84 ERA in 73 appearances.

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It’s too difficult to project who could be used as Counsell’s high leverage arm, with so many unknowns still surrounding what the bullpen could look like. However, Counsell expects Maton to play a leverage role.

“The bullpen, what we thought about our bullpen at the beginning of the season — maybe what we thought was we were wrong, we were really wrong about that,” Counsell said during the winter meetings. “We ended up pitching pretty well. But I think early in the season maybe they weren’t the guys we expected. It shows, having a bunch of good arms and seeing what happens and having enough ability to pivot when you need to during the season.”

Counsell envisions a bounce-back season from Porter Hodge being a big part of how the bullpen shakes out.

2. Building a better bench is an ambitious priority.

The Cubs were among the healthiest in the majors for their starting group.

Beyond injuries to Kyle Tucker and Miguel Amaya, the Cubs largely didn’t need to rely on their bench options, aside from situations where Counsell opted to use veteran Justin Turner as a pinch hitter for Michael Busch. The Cubs know there could be a significant regression in health due to the ups and downs that can arise from year to year with injuries.

The Cubs, however, don’t have many platoon bats to offer attractive potential bench players that would give them the best depth to reduce the decline of any of their starting position players.

“There are a lot of players who want to establish themselves or reestablish themselves as ordinary players, and when you offer them a non-ordinary role, they kind of ask themselves: OK, what are the chances that they will even have a chance to do that? » said Hawkins. “Now you could overpay someone to do that part-time role, but then there’s an opportunity cost of that money. That’s where the challenge lies.”

Optimally, Hawkins added, players are brought up from the minors to fill those bench roles and learn how to effectively slot into the big leagues.

“But yeah, it’s an interesting problem,” Hawkins said. “I think you’ve seen it with teams like us, or teams like the Braves, where you have this group of very defined position players, and we’re not an attractive place for someone who can necessarily play multiple positions, but that can also change on a dime.

“So it’s about trying to sell the environment to the player, trying to sell how we could potentially use it. I think having Craig Counsell really helps him, because he’s able to articulate those roles very effectively. He’s played those roles a lot as a player, so that makes up for it a little bit. But given where our team is right now, it’s a harder sell.”

3. Praise for Moisés Ballesteros.

The Cubs are confident Ballesteros can succeed in the majors.

This belief gives the organization an internal backup plan if it does not acquire a more proven hitter in the coming months. Counsell called Ballesteros and top prospect Owen Caissie important players for 2026, at least with the way the roster is currently constructed. Ballesteros in particular is well positioned to start the season in the majors.

“He’s at the point where if he can help the major league team, he’ll be in the major leagues,” Counsell said of Ballesteros. “He doesn’t have an everyday major league catching job. But as constructed right now, we have room for hitters, and I would prioritize the major leagues right now. But that may change with roster items.”

At just 22 years old, Ballesteros has impressed the Cubs in his 20 major league games. Pending offseason moves, Seiya Suzuki is expected to move back to right field, creating a need at designated hitter. Ballesteros only started behind the plate once in the majors last season, and his performance was encouraging. The Cubs will look to continue giving him action at catcher if he makes the big league team, although it won’t be a frequent occurrence at third on the depth chart behind Carson Kelly and Amaya.

4. Quantify the value of Nico Hoerner.

Coming off a career-best season that saw him win his second Gold Glove Award, Hoerner played a key role in helping the Cubs return to the postseason for the first time since 2020.

His effect on the Cubs may be difficult for other teams to fully quantify, but his intensity and consistency have not gone unnoticed within the organization. With his batting skills, leadership and elite defense at second base, it could prove valuable for the Cubs to find common ground and extend Hoerner, who turns 29 in May. Hoerner, earning $12 million in 2026, is entering the final year of the three-year, $35 million deal he signed in March 2023.

“Everyone has their own intangible qualities,” Counsell said. “Nico is really great at some things that I think other people think they’re good at and they’re not as good. I’m not just talking about the players, I’m just talking about the people. Like when you say show up every day and finish every rep, every rep is completed perfectly. That’s who Nico is. And it seems to be, well, it’s easy, anyone can do it, I do it. Well, you don’t. I would put Nico at the top list for the way he does that.

“In a sport like baseball, with so many games and so many moments, it shows a lot. It’s a great trait and it’s what made Nico a very good baseball player.”