Cardinals rival Cubs again fail to flex financial muscle in Tarik Skubal sweepstakes

While the St. Louis Cardinals are in an era where they are wanting to limit payroll and spending, many fans have come to believe that the Chicago Cubs, one of baseball's largest market teams, will once again fail to make a big splash and fill an offseason need.

The Cubs are losing Shota Imanaga, Kevin Gausman, David Peterson, Matthew Boyd, and Aaron Civale to free agency. Their projected 2027 rotation is Justin Steele, who is returning from Tommy John Surgery, Edward Cabrera, Ben Brown, Javier Assad, and Braxton Garrett. Among teams looking to compete for pennants in the National League, that's one of the weakest rotations.

Many in and around baseball assumed at the start of the season that the Cubs would be involved in the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes this offseason. That, however, doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

According to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, the Chicago Cubs are sitting out the Skubal sweepstakes. "Amid a backdrop of labor uncertainty and with so many holes to fill on their roster, the Cubs appear unlikely to enter the bidding war for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal," wrote Sharma.

While the Cubs are not expected to sign Skubal any longer, they will "at least check in" on other free-agent starting pitchers. Michael King, Sonny Gray, and Freddy Peralta appear to be the next tier of starters this winter.

The Chicago Cubs' unwillingness to spend for Tarik Skubal benefits the St. Louis Cardinals.

For several years, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals duked it out in the National League Central. From 2002 to 2009, every National League Central division winner was either the Cubs or the Cardinals. The same pattern also occurred from 2013 through 2017. The Cardinals competed with a moderate payroll and a homegrown group of stars in both of those eras. The Cubs, by and large, competed with large pocketbooks and the benefit of being in a major city.

While the Cubs have every reason to invest in high-end free agents and outspend the other small-market National League Central teams, they refuse year after year to do so. Chicago, especially with its TV deal, has virtually every ability to spend with big-market teams like the New York Mets, New York Yankees, and Chicago Cubs. Instead, they opt to stay away from the top tier of free agents and instead invest in lower tiers.

While the St. Louis Cardinals aren't going to spend gobs of money in the near future in free agency, their ability to field a competitive team with a payroll that is one-third of Chicago's shows that once they do spend, they'll be able to play better than the Cubs.

St. Louis will be able to rely on key core players like Jordan Walker, JJ Wetherholt, Liam Doyle, and several other young players, all on relatively cheap contracts. They can be supplemented in free agency with proven players in the near future. This combination will almost assuredly be better than the Cubs so long as Chicago continues to operate like a mid-market team.

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