Monday Morning Cubs Show
A show every Monday morning about the Chicago Cubs from Carl and Mahoney.
Monday Morning Cubs Show
Inside The Cubs’ Offseason: Jed, Tucker, And The Ricketts Reality
Welcome back to the MMCS and thank you for tuning in.
Rival banter won’t move a single runner. We start by calling out the L flag noise and center the only thing that matters: building a tougher Cubs team with a durable identity. From there, we dig into Jed Hoyer’s steady hand—why a quiet presser, a restrained deadline, and a long view on development are features, not bugs, of a front office that finally has real teeth. Discipline isn’t passive; it’s how you win late in October when the lights are hottest.
We unpack Kyle Tucker as a perfect one-year accelerant: the OBP, the presence, the way he changed at-bats around him. That doesn’t mean a nine-figure marriage makes sense now. If you’re trying to outspend the Dodgers, you’ve already lost; if you’re trying to out-execute them, you’re in the fight. That puts more weight on Matt Shaw’s glove and bat, Pete Crow-Armstrong’s defense and growth, Owen Caissie’s right field future, and Moises Ballesteros’ bat-to-ball. The blueprint is simple to say and hard to do: cultivate dogs in the clubhouse, then add selectively where the roster truly needs it—DH power, contact under pressure, and pitching depth that can survive a seven-game grind.
We also level with you on the money. The Dodgers have Guggenheim behind them. The Mets have Cohen. The Cubs have strong revenues—and real constraints from a debt-heavy purchase that COVID made worse. “Go over the luxury tax” misses the point when the actual issue is cash flow. That’s why Jed’s creativity matters, why internal growth is non-negotiable, and why free agency must be a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. Want to beat LA? Build a team that knows who it is on day one of spring, plays clean, and refuses to blink with two outs.
If you’re into clear-eyed strategy, culture over noise, and a plan that gets the Cubs back to late October, hit play. Then subscribe, share with a Cubs friend, and drop your offseason priority in a review—we’re reading every word.
Thanks for tuning in!
- Carl & Mahoney
And we're clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show. Today is Monday, October 20th. I am Carl, and I am very happy to say I am joined by Mahoney. It's good to see you, my friend.
SPEAKER_01:Carl, it's good to see you as always. I believe that fall is in the air, sir. It's a bit crisp. You're wearing a beanie. I got a cardigan right behind me when I have to put this on in my garage. But either way, happy to be back. Happy to be talking some Cubs baseball and really just happy about this season as a whole and collectively with the maniacs by our side.
SPEAKER_00:It is good to hear from you. People were reaching out to me. They wanted to know, are you dead?
SPEAKER_01:I had a lot of questions. That's a strike down the middle, Carl. That my messages and inbox was actually flooding. I had folks, friends reaching out to me, and I just would explain this was all part of the plan. A couple mishaps, you know, where I had an emergency room visit with the son. All is well and ends well. And it couldn't have gone better for the maniacs and the Monday morning cub show altogether because you had carried everyone through the postseason beautifully. But either way, I'm alive, I'm well, and I'm feeling really dangerous and spicy right now, Carl.
SPEAKER_00:Mahoney's also a father in his 40s, running a business, making time for the maniacs throughout the regular season, committing to build this show out. So you take a couple, you take time off. You got to go do a project install in Michigan. I mean, believe it or not, I am comfortable talking about the cups. So we can figure this out.
SPEAKER_01:I think we're in good hands when it comes to baseball specific dialogue.
SPEAKER_00:So just a couple things on the agenda for today. I do I want to talk about Jed's presser. I want to talk a little bit about offseason. I'm not too deep. I'll give some thoughts on Kyle Tucker, and this is going to be an evolving conversation. And we got to talk Tom Rickett's deep dive, but it's not even like the deepest dive I can go. We're going to save that for the end. But I want to do a better job of educating Cubs fans, just what is the financial situation? Because my view is way different than what people comment on and what people say on Twitter and what people are walking around beating their chest.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, and the conversations I have in public, it's it's sometimes I'm like, whoa, I thought we were all on the same page here, and it's just it's not always close.
SPEAKER_00:It isn't. So there's the other thing, we'll talk about the Milwaukee, L Flag, um, some stuff again, Chet Hoyer, Show to Imanaga. Most importantly, though, off the top, I'm in a great mood and it's good to see you. I like what you said off the top. You're saying it was a good season. I still feel good about how the Cubs showed up this year, getting a playoff series win. Would have been nice to win that game five against the Brewers. Would have been nice about and compete against the Dodgers. You know, do we get swept against the Dodgers? I don't know. They they had amazing pitching performances from Blake Snell, from um everybody who took them out for him. I don't need to list him up. Obviously, Shohei Otani with the greatest game of all time. It's hard to say whether or not the Cubs how would we have gotten swept or not, or whatever. We lost to the Brewers in game five.
SPEAKER_01:Um I'll tell you what, there's no way Otani does that to this club's lineup. No way. Crazy time. He doesn't get to those three dingers. Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00:No, dude. He hit like he hit like a quarter of a mile worth of home runs.
SPEAKER_01:It was come one was completely gone. It hit a highway and kept going.
SPEAKER_00:Before we talk about stuff, hey, shout out Thirsty Viccaro. The campaign for the postseason has come to its end, but I I still am remiss just not to like tell you guys the reason we were able to put out, I think, 17 shows in a three-week span or whatever it was, is because we were backed by a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite, no rattle. You guys can get it on Amazon. We've talked about it before, it's just so fucking good.
SPEAKER_01:Genuinely a good product that I will be drinking, regardless of our future relationship. I'm happy to have Thirsty Vaquero in my refrigerator as we speak. Thank you to those guys. I just got another care package in the mail. You know, I had purchased a few on Amazon just because I couldn't get enough and I want to support the cause. But specifically, just the first sponsor for myself and my existence doing anything of this nature, Carl. So it felt great and it did allow us and you to really be churning out content for the maniacs. And the fact that I can actually get behind something, you know, when you hear people talking about, listen, this is a product I actually use, right? And they're like putting stuff in their eyes. This is something that I honestly will be drinking for as long as I live.
SPEAKER_00:So not an official ad read here, guys, just more of kind of like a product, you know. Yeah, I just love it. Endorsement. What do we say here?
unknown:I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:It's delicious.
SPEAKER_01:It's you just took the words out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00:Every time you guys have a sip of thirsty backero, you're supporting the Monday morning cup show, you're supporting Monday morning maniacs. Um all right, let's just get into it, dude. Like, let's just get into it. I want to start with this Milwaukee L flag, and I wrote this down. We'd pitch clock this mostly just because I could go for like three hours on the topic, but I haven't been able to talk about this yet, I think. Did the L flag happen last week?
SPEAKER_01:Believe so it happened at the end of our series with them. So that would be within what the last week.
SPEAKER_00:I I'm surprised I didn't bitch about this in last week, or maybe I may I don't know why I didn't get into it. But it really bothers me how much Cubs fans generally and broadly are celebrating the Brewers getting swept in the NLCS. Like, that's what you get for hanging an L flag. Like, I don't want to be preachy. I'm not getting on a soapbox, I'm not. We fucking lost the Brewers beating us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay. We are we're on the same page here. I mean, per usual, we lost that game. We can't call that, you know, Wrigley North until we win a playoff series against Milwaukee from here on forward. They want to fly an L flag, that's good. They're asking to be memed, they can get that karma. That's not our problem. We didn't beat them. Let the teams do whatever the hell they want. It didn't bother me nearly as much as it jarred the fan base, and they did get memed, you know, after they got swept by the Dodgers. So whatever. It's it's it's just one of those things.
SPEAKER_00:I saw it. I thought those motherfuckers, you might an L.
SPEAKER_01:And how much do we I thought they got us? Dude, how much do the Cubs fans, and not just fans, I mean like the whole culture, the how much does that piss people off with that W if they don't like the Cubs, right? It must drive them nuts. So why aren't you gonna do a little bit of a parody on that? Love the parody. Love the modernity.
SPEAKER_00:All you gotta do is put an L, a blue L. That's all it takes. I mean, if you're an honest Cubs fan, if you're honest, we lost, we lost. We and we talked so much shit about the Brewers. The Brewers have won division championships. What in like 18, 19, 21, 20? They have Christian Yelich has dominated the NL Central. Like I wanted to hang an L flag after beating the. Now, I don't I don't like being put on blast like that. I'd prefer we win the game so we don't get put on blast, but they won. And we've talked so much shit. There's so much chest pounding. I'm a cheese mowing cubs fandom, and we own that stadium and we pay your bills, and you guys suck, and you're lucky we buy those tickets out. And like, I get it. I've talked a lot of shit to Brewers fans, but again, like the people that are celebrating the fact that the Brewers got swept by the Dodgers because that's what you get is some of the worst, most cringe, puss-like behavior I could possibly expect. The only thing that matters is us getting ready for 2026 and putting ourselves in a position where we don't get humiliated like that again. We lost game five. They want to hang an L flag, hang an L flag. You want to do whatever? Yeah, I mean, I just I had to get that off my chest. And I don't want to be preacher soaps because there's people listening that said are like thrilled that the Brewers got swept by that is no impact on the Cubs. We lost to the Brewers. Now the Brewers are out of the playoffs as well, but I just thought that was so trashy. Our reaction.
SPEAKER_01:The reaction to their reaction of winning, right? And you're walking around right now with a W on your head.
SPEAKER_00:So, like what Mahoney's talking about is the winner hat I'm wearing right now. I'm wearing a beanie, a W beanie.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a Cubs W beanie, as far as I know. And with that said, yeah, you gotta move on. It's not that big of a deal. I didn't care at all. I couldn't believe how much content that it generated on the internet that was crossing my page.
SPEAKER_00:We gotta move on from it. I mean, there's people still talking, that's just anger, and then people are arguing with each other on Twitter. I'm I get a lot of it. I said I'm proud of the Chicago Cubs for a great season, just get absolutely throttled by people.
SPEAKER_01:You raging alcoholic, you were just trying to be you were trying to be positive and optimistic and celebrate a season. That's all you were doing, and then it was just vitrol. But that's that's that black hole sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:And that's fine. That's the world we live in. I don't mind it, I embrace it. Just coming back to this, like we just as a fan base, I would just ask us to be a little bit more tougher and a little bit more about inside our clubhouse and basically not being huge pussies.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, to your point about anyone celebrating the fact that they got swept by the Dodgers. I even said, Oh, that was karma, like you know, two minutes ago. However, it sounds a little familiar within our city if we're focusing our energy on another baseball team that we have to compete with, right? I mean, in that negative energy. We have to focus on ourselves. I don't want to hear about oh, you know, Sox fans love hearing that the Cubs lost. I saw plenty of celebration there. Guess what? We don't need to be that way, even within our own division. So moving on.
SPEAKER_00:They went 41 and 121 last two years, what, 2024? Not for the Cleveland Spiders, who migrated all of their players to the St. Louis Browns, I believe. It's a crazy story about how the 1899 Cleveland Spiders ended up losing. I want to say their losing percentage was somewhere around 75%, and it was they tanked on purpose. It was like the movie Major League. But like that's literally the closest comparison to where the White Sox were in 2024. And you know what? I would tell the White Sox you guys had a good season in 25. Based on all the adversity, you guys, you there's some really bright young players in Colson Montgomery. Like, I'm eternally optimistic about baseball in general, and I like baseball in my city, but there's just people who want to talk shit and it makes them feel better. The Cubs lose. You know, I feel bad for those. I just feel bad. Like my heart goes out to like you take satisfaction in our loss because your your life sucks that much.
SPEAKER_01:It is not a great place to be for a human being, and I would suggest not being that way, if you can.
SPEAKER_00:But my overarching thing is if if they want to hang an L flag after beating us, if people want to tell you, you do whatever you want to do. If people are gonna talk shit when the Cubs do whatever we did, lose. So this is a real vague area, but I have to touch on that. And and if this does reach any Cubs fan under any type of like serious mindset, please just be tougher. Don't be a pussy, don't be a pussy, don't be sitting around talking shit to the Brewers fans on Twitter because they just got swept by the Dodgers. They fucking beat us. So we're moving on. Let's do some baller strike. I got you some.
SPEAKER_01:Give it to me.
SPEAKER_00:Um, baller strike. There were no surprises in Jed Hoyer's press conference.
SPEAKER_01:Strike, absolutely zero surprises whatsoever. I heard a lot about how they built the roster, the depth, the balance of youth with some veteran capabilities, and the ability to really hit on trades, which they you know they didn't go anywhere on, which was absolutely fine with me. So that's a strike. There were no surprises. It was pretty cookie cutter as we expect it to be.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, he's not gonna give you anything juicy or sexy. He's gotta sit down and face the media. I don't know if these are marquee network contract allowances. I don't know if this is I don't know how it works. If I was Jed, I wouldn't talk to him. I would just say, I'll see you guys in the case.
SPEAKER_01:It's almost like you have to remind people like, hey, here's what how we got here, here's what happened. Remember, we did lose Justin Steele early on. How do we pivot with that? You know, and like they kind of give that little bit of a breakdown and and go from there. But yeah, no surprises, pretty cookie cutter, and I'll take it. You know, I think Jed handles the media well and handles his job, you know, as professionally as you can in the situation he's in, dealing with the ownership he does.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, baller strike, we really like Jed Hoyer.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Strike, yeah. He's my favorite person in leadership within, you know, above management.
SPEAKER_00:He's he's very good with what I perceive to be an extremely complicated situation behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, hands are tied constantly, and does he's a someone who does what he can but does not complain about his circumstances. So, you know, that's a hats off guy in any profession, uh to be quite honest. And I love that he didn't make a bunch of stupid decisions to like just please the fan base or try to take a big hack and big swing. The dude just got his contract. He actually does have to think about a lot. And you know, I have family members, I have friends still bringing up that this weekend. You know, we're talking about the Cubs a lot. I was with a lot of friends and family and stuff at a wedding, and everyone's saying, like, well, they didn't do anything at the trade now. And I'm still can't believe that that's being brought up when there was nothing to be done at the deadline, right? And it's just an it's an annoying thing that people do at the end of the season to look for answers.
SPEAKER_00:I think the big part would be not get would be getting someone who was healthy instead of Siroca. I think that's kind of the regret is you traded for somebody who was ultimately who got injured immediately, and we never really even got a chance at that depth. But from the perspective that there was somebody who would start in a series that would start above Shoda or start again, but boy, that the market wasn't there. And like if you look at McKenzie Gore was a name that they were tied to, he was like not good at all down the stretch. I don't know, I don't know if people making these like retroactive comments that we didn't do enough are fully aware that they're what was available, and so as we're just kind of set, what I would like to do is I should take a step back, just kind of generally set the tone for this offseason. And part of what I'd like the first part of this is saying I like Jed Hoyer a lot. I like building with Jed Hoyer. I don't think there's a better president for these circumstances based on his experience, obviously, with the team, but also how much he's grown it. And this is a guy who makes tough decisions. Firing David Ross to hire Craig Council is an extremely tough decision, and it didn't pay off last year. And now you see a little bit of the benefit when you look at the bullpen management, workload. A lot of guys hit their stride down the stretch. Now, there's a ton of stuff we'll get to with the lineup, but just generally speaking, the most important building block to me as we go into the offseason and we put a feather in our cap from the 2025 season is that like we have the right guy at the very top, and that's Jet Hoyer. There's a guy above him, his name's Tom Ricketts, and we'll talk about him in the second half of this episode. But just my biggest building block for the offseason is Jed Hoyer. The overall satisfaction I have for him through the roof. We we'll go through this in a later episode after the World Series concludes. I'll give individual player grades, talk about Matt Boyd's season, fucking Palency, all that stuff. But like the gems that Jed Hoyer has added, I do like the internal depth that we have from the draft. I think Kate Horton emerged sensationally.
SPEAKER_01:There's so many positive things to say about like the reclamation, the reclamation projects with the pitching staff and what he you know, the value that he's getting guys later in their careers that end up turning out incredibly all-star years in Matthew Boyd. Look at those things and look at like Drew Pomerant's and all of that working out, like that's something that we'll have to look at. I think more um, you know, bigger picture when we grade. Because I don't know if any other general manager is doing that in baseball. And that's I actually don't know. So I think Jed could be, but I'll get to that when we actually grade it out. But it's it's really an amazing thing what he's done.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think above 200 million dollar payroll, there's a more creative front office than what the Cubs do. Maybe the Houston Astros, they're they're big risk takers, but they're they've been so good for so long at developing guys where the Cubs are recently getting into it. You know, the Cubs had not had not really started developing guys until they had the sell-off in 21. And you look down, you're like, we don't have anybody knocking on the door to come in here. We have no talented prospects, nothing. So the emphasis that the Cubs have put internally, and then I do the stuff behind the scenes too with the data engineering, the systems management, they've got some of the absolute best people in the business. I don't know how much people understand how the Cubs have a huge advantage. Um, maybe not huge advantage, but they're they're like, is it fair to say top top five? I think quant like the Dodgers are top five, the Rays historically. I mean, I'm interested to see what Stearns does with the Mets. But if you go at the if you look at the top of payroll spending, like the Phillies just throw$30 million at anybody. Um, the same thing with the Mets, and there's reasons for that with the Cubs, and that's pr particularly because of how Tom Ricketts bought the team. But let's just stay in ball and strike for a second I'm gonna go into this Tom Ricketts thing pretty hard. Right on now, ball or strike, the Cubs will sign, will re-sign Kyle Tucker.
SPEAKER_01:Wild pitch into the stands, and it might have hit some poor old lady in the face. Carl, that thing passed the net, that didn't even catch the net. There's no way, as soon as you read Hinklings, the seasons were over, you could hear kind of the indication in his voice. He he doesn't know and probably isn't supposed to say anything, but you see, the Dodgers are interested. I mean, it's over. He'll be in LA, and there's no way we're gonna match the amount of money that they're, I think, willing to spend or structure around a player like Kyle Tucker.
SPEAKER_00:So, yep, ball. The Dodgers are ruining baseball. People say they're just way better run, and they've got way more money, and the people who own them are way smarter, and the Dodgers are an old, old, old team. Brooklyn Dodgers. Old team, old fan base. They got fans on the East Coast, and they own the Los Angeles West Coast market up and down, one of the best baseball markets in America. Own it, baby. As much as the Yankees own the East Coast, the Dodgers are such a big brand, and they're owned by Guggenheim. Guggenheim has$360 billion worth of assets under management. I repeat, Guggenheim has$360 billion worth of assets under management. And I want to say they have a portfolio of stuff they own and operate that's in excess of like$20 or 30 billion. They have so much shit in play and they can fund it perfectly. They can defer money to Otani without a risk to the Dodgers because it's owned by this massive bank. The Rickets are not that. That's not the fucking topic.
SPEAKER_01:They have to go and ask money from a bank. Right? And these sit like a I mean, I know TD Ameritrade probably operates as an investment bank in some way.
SPEAKER_00:But this is where this is where stuff gets really confusing with them. Because, like, whatever, daddy started TD Ameritrade. Dad doesn't own dad does not own the Cubs. Tom did not own TD Ameritrade. Tom may inherit that money from his father. His father may have gifted him money. His father helped him start his investment bank. His father's idea that Tom Rickets is walking around with billions of his he is worth he is worth his dad's worth it. He's part of the family that's worth it. He will inherit that money from his father when his father dies. I'm sure his I'm sure he got money from TD Ameritra. I'm sure there's money. You know, I'm sure he goes in the bank account. There's money there. But yeah, as far as like Kyle Tucker going to the Dodgers and Guggenheim, cutting him a check for you know$600 million for 12 years or whatever it's going to be. And then people are going to turn around and call Tom Ricketts cheap or the Cubs cheap, etc. It's a very layered conversation. I'm glad this is the first step in the offseason of talking about this stuff. Because we can't, I can't. It would take six hours to do it right now, off the top of my head. It would take so long for me to properly articulate just how different these two situations are. But baller strike, Kyle Tucker's not going to be a Chicago Cup.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Ball, ball heartless as far as it can get outside.
SPEAKER_00:Now, ball or strike, was it a good trade? It was a good trade. Baller strike, it was a good trade. Strike. Yeah. Good trade. Especially with Matt Shaw's development and getting rid of Cam Smith, who then they moved to the outfield because we had the two third basemen. We were in between third basemen. I was wrong when the Cubs played the Astros and said I would have traded Matt Shaw over Cam Smith. Obviously. And anybody who had that take was very wrong. Matt Shaw, gold glove finalist. Matt Shaw, unbelievable second half. Makes it so that we can trade Cam Smith, Hayden Wisnesky. I think Isak Parades. That's correct. Okay, and then we get Kyle Tucker back for a year. We win our first playoff series. And then you get Kyle Tucker around. Um and I think it elevates these guys. I think it elevated everybody in the clubhouse for the year.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. You have that guy, you know, batting second or third, whatever, you're front and back behind him. You're going to be feeding off that energy. And I mean, just his approach and his at bats, you know, that can't be not contagious.
SPEAKER_00:There's a way to appreciate what Kyle Tucker did without wanting to give him$50 million every year for the next decade. Like, I love the fact that he was able to milk a 390 OBP or whatever it was with a bad lower half without being a threat at all to pitchers. He had six homers in the second half of the season, I believe. Or yeah, six, six homers in the last four, who cares, 14 weeks. He didn't do shit. And he was still getting on base and he was still working at bats. And so there's this kind of like this layered, I don't want to give him money, I don't want him around for the long term. The Cubs aren't going to do it anyways. But it was good when he was here, at least to raise our internal temperature. I thought, you know, Dansby can only do so much. I think Dansby does a lot. Nico Horner's not a guy who I don't know why I just called on Nico Horner, but you can just lump Nico Horner and Bush and Hap, these kind of they're very good players. Kyle Tucker is this is not the right time to be making this point, but obviously elite.
SPEAKER_01:Elite hitter. It's an absolute elite hitter.
SPEAKER_00:But as times passed, dude, it's like, you know, I'm sure you had a nice high school girlfriend or college girlfriend or whatever, but like you guys are headed in different directions. Not to say you wish ill on her or she's not going to do well or whatever. But like we have a bright future with what we have in Moises Biasteros, Owen Casey. And the overarching point is if we do want to beat the Dodgers, if we do want to be a team at the top of the National League, we have to get our own firepower. We have to get our own star power. And that doesn't necessarily mean just go cut a check for Kyle Schwarber and cut a check for Alex Bregman. That means kind of building your own dogs too and having your own, you know, stars to champion good, hard, clean play. And the Cubs have that more than I can remember. Like Matt Shaw is a dog, he is a absolute dog. PCA wants to be a champion. Matt Shaw wants to be a champion. And I don't think people understand that's not the standard case for people in Major League Baseball.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, it really isn't. And like Cade Horton, you see it in his eyes, the way his was putting, I mean, just everything in that second half was beautiful until the injury. But um, I don't see the I see it both ways, right? Because I know you have to develop talent internally. You want to have these homegrown stars that could be the face of the franchise kind of thing. And then you add in between. That's where I think that's how you build culture by bringing those guys together, building your own stars and and developing them properly, but they have to see it as well as they're coming up in the big leagues. And that's what they just did, having Kyle Tucker around for one season. So, you know what? Like, just be grateful that we had him for a full year and as a rental, barring injuries. And then are we gonna pay him? Not likely. So just be grateful for it, right? Because it only helped our guys that we're gonna be seeing in the future.
SPEAKER_00:It only moves us forward, only moves us up. It was a great experience to have him. It brought fans, fans had I had a way better season than I've had, and I can remember. I know you say this out so many people had great cub seasons following this team, and we're building off of this. We're not just jumping from immense letdown in 2020, dude, horseshit team in 21, horseshit team in 22, immense letdown in 23, letdown in 24. Like we finally got some juice under our legs. Like we collapsed in 19, we've collapsed in 18, and we blew our wad in 17, we played drunk in 17. I mean, you know, right back to the World Series season, and it just you could see how easily it all starts to slip away. And it's like if we want to get back to that and we want to be there consistently, then I'm all on board of building organically and internally and then adding intelligently. I'm not saying don't sign Kyle Schwarber, no sign Kyle Schwarber if it makes sense. That's a decision we're gonna have to make on what we're gonna do with the DH, but we should be inventorying our up-and-comers first before we just go out and throw money at people. Is Owen Casey a guy who can play right field every day in the big leagues, hit 265 with 35 homers? Like, that's what I think his profile says, and he should be running out to right field next year. If that's the case, then he should be running out to right field every day.
SPEAKER_01:And Carl, the way yeah, no, everything you're explaining too, with like develop these guys, this, that, and the other, and building it internally. Like, I think that this playoff system as it is now, that's where teams should be focusing more, and that's where the Cubs have to focus, you know, where which they're doing. So they're you just gotta get in, you know, and and instead of just tossing money left and right and then shitting the, you know, shitting the bet at the end.
SPEAKER_00:The problem is with this conversation, people are gonna come back and say, Well, what about the Dodgers? What about the Dodgers? And what about the Dodgers? And my over like response to that is to beat the Dodgers, we're not gonna outspend them. It's clear that Tom Ricketts isn't gonna be able to outspend these guys anytime soon. Um and it just comes back to having a culture and an identity of the lineup. Now we'll talk pitching staffs a little bit different because you can bring in guys, you know, you can be more creative in getting outs. But as far as forming an identity of who the team is, going into the offseason and having Shaw, Swanee, Hap Bush in the infield with no question marks, knowing PCAs in center field for basically as long as he can be in center field. Oh, what's that? Another like 10 years? I don't know. Yeah, Miguel Amaya is the catcher. Like, we have so many great, tough, good things to build around. So then we go out to right field. What are we gonna do in right field? What are we gonna do with Moises Biasteros? And say a Suzuki, he should be the DH. He was one of the best players last year and runners in scoring position with two outs, I believe. It's just an amazing season. Which is a shit, that's pretty shitty for me to just say he was awesome with runners in scoring position, two outs. It's a pretty I'm cherry-picking good stuff here for him. But like there's enough to build around this lineup. Then if we do add a Kyle Schwarber on an intelligent deal, great, that's awesome. I mean, I don't know if that's the reason why we do or don't beat the Dodgers. If we do or don't beat the Dodgers, we do or don't get back to the pennant. It's gonna be because of that identity that those guys have day one of spring training. When they're walking in the clubhouse being like, this is who we are every single year, it's like that. And that's called culture, my friend. And I thought this year was a huge step in the right direction towards positive culture, sustainable culture, and shit that gets these guys competitive. You want to win and you want to lose. One of the things I'm saying is people take it for granted that these guys don't want to lose or that they want to win, and it's not always that case. Like, guys, a lot of these guys want to get paid, a lot of these guys are just robotic going through the motions. Okay, season's over, good luck. See you guys later. That's just the way it is. So when you have guys that take it personally, we lost this year, and I hate the way that feels losing, and that's gonna drive me in the offseason to get better. 90% of these guys, 95% of these guys are getting in the offseason are driven for another contract to perform under contract to make money for their family because it's their profession. So basically, a good question for the audience is how personally do you take your job? If you're a salesperson, you lose out on a sale. Are you mad because you lost the sale or are you mad because you don't get the money? Most of you motherfuckers are mad you don't get the money. And it's the same thing with Major League Baseball. Like to find players that actually care and want to be a part of the process. And I know this is esoteric. Stuff that can't get measured. You're not going to get a data analyst who's going to come in and say, This is I'm going to measure how much this guy cares. What you're going to do is look at Matt Chong and say, this guy had 1.5 defensive runs saved or whatever it was. 1.5 defensive war. One of the top defensive third basemen. Never played a lick of third base in his life going in this season. Never. How do you measure that? A guy who's just like, I'll figure that. I will figure out the position. I will play it as hard as I can possibly play it. That's the culture itself.
SPEAKER_01:The culture itself within a club playoffs is what can build a winning culture sustainably. Right. And that's like exactly what I think you're saying and what you're getting at because and that's the way you have to think differently if you're going to compete with the big dog teams like the Dodgers, who are going to do both.
SPEAKER_00:We're getting a little off script here. Fair. And that's my fault. I just took that in a thousand different directions. You know, we've got the baller strikes right now, and just baller strike cubs resigned Kyle Tucker. They're not going to.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's what we were still on.
SPEAKER_00:They're just not. I know, but I this is it all works together for me. It's all like, you know, it's like a bowl of spaghetti.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That noodle stuck in the back of your throat. It's the same one that's in the bowl.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna the biggest thing we're gonna be talking about this offseason is that culture piece and is that subjective identity that Jed's pursuing is so much more important to me than how do we spend the Cody Ballinger money right now? How come we're not at 240? How come we're not at 250? Why are we not at the luxury tax? Why aren't we here? Why aren't we there? That stuff is all gonna come together. We are gonna spend money. I anticipate the Cubs of Field a very good team next year. I anticipate to be there'll be a ton of starting pitching editions or bullpen editions, or we're gonna improve there, and there's stuff to improve. But I would ask everyone to kind of get in their head right now that you have to build the culture first. I don't think it's much different in the NFL either. Like for whatever reason, people can buy in on that. But then with baseball, it just comes back to like numbers and contracts and statistics and exit velocity. Really, it is about having dogs in the clubhouse, having dogs. It's unique. Let the record show that if Tom Riggins did not bring in Theo Epstein and they did not win the 2016 World Series, he would be the most hated person in my life. I would hate his guts more than anybody. The way he bought the Cubs, how recklessly he financed the Cubs and collateralized the debt against Wrigley Field without any cash up front, any cash on hand.
SPEAKER_01:Public enemy number one. It wouldn't even be close, dude.
SPEAKER_00:Literally, the fact that we have a rocking Wrigley Field and a 2016 World Series championship and a whole bunch of playoff memories with him under the helm as our owner is his saving grace. He is a nice man.
SPEAKER_01:There's a bunch of good things about him, but just with the guy at a wedding who was with him like during the playoff run. He's like, really nice guy. I'm like, yeah, that's what I fucking hear all the time. It's the truth. No, a lot of people do. Carl, I got an issue here. I think Amazon Web Services just shit the bet or something. So um I got some alerts going off on the IT thing. Yeah, why don't you finish us?
SPEAKER_00:Can you finish us off? I'm gonna do a deep dive on. I say it's written down as a deep dive. I just want to talk about Tom Ricketts and the way he owns the Cubs and generally speaking, some loose-ended stuff about how he purchased the Cubs. All right. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01:I can't wait to listen to it. Maniacs Carl, have a great, fantastic week. Love you all. And uh yeah, Carl, take us away.
SPEAKER_00:All right. This is the Monday morning cub show. We are pivoting to solo here. I'm not hitting pause or doing any of this editing post-production stuff. Appreciate you guys who've tuned in so far. And just keeping our mindset about like yeah, it would be easy to just go cut checks. It would be easy. That's how how do we get the cubs better? We should have Alex Bregman, we should have Kyle Schwarber, we should have Yamamoto, we should have fucking and how much of it's realistic? How much of it's realistic that we can do that? I don't think it's any more realistic than saying the same thing about the White Sox. Like if White Sox fans are walking around being like, we need to go get who do we need to get? Framber Valdez. You know, we need to go get the biggest arms on the on the market. Bring back Dylan Cees. I mean, that's just sheer lunacy, right? And not to be like, you know, too salty or negative here, but like I definitely believe the Cubs are closer in that respect when it comes to big ticket free agents right now than they are to the Dodgers or the Mets. And that has everything to do with how much money Tom Ricketts has to spend as the owner. And this is worth like a very long researched episode, but I've talked about this a lot before. We're gonna circle back on the fact that Tom Ricketts bought the Cubs with debt, and he has to pay a high debt service, which means interest. Imagine you go out and you buy a car and it's like 25% interest. There's just something like crazy. You're like, what the fuck? No, think of just some ridiculous financing agreement that you would look at and you'd say you'd have to be in you'd have to be stupid to do that, or you have a lot, you know, you obviously have a high risk tolerance. And that's kind of how I view Tom Ricketts and how he bought the Cubs. Like if you want to compare them to the Dodgers, we've talked about this. The Dodgers are owned by Guggenheim, which is a wealth capital firm,$360 billion of assets under management. You know, the Mets are owned by Steve Cohen, who's got billions of dollars, has earned billions of dollars in cash that he has that he's made through business. Like Tom Ricketts did not make billions of dollars as an investment banker in Chicago, believe that or not. His dad made billions of dollars when he sold TD Ameritrade. You know, Tom Ricketts, yeah, made millions. I'm sure they're I'm sure he's rich as fuck. I'm sure he's richer than anybody listening to this. Richest person I've ever known. Maybe not. I don't know. One of the richest guys I've ever met, I'm sure. Super fucking rich. I bet Tom Ricketts is so rich. But like if we're talking about is he Guggenheim rich? Absolutely not. Is he Steve Cohen rich? No way. Is he New York Yankee rich? No. Other big spenders, Phillies, the Phillies. He got his money by fucking over his family and then selling the family business for$4 billion. The family business is tobacco. Backwoods. You ever roll backwoods? That's who owns the Phillies, the guy who makes the tobacco for backwoods. And apparently he like screwed allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, screwed family over, sold the business. Now he's got four billion dollars to spend. That's my understanding. That's my understanding of having cash on hand. Tom Ricketts hasn't sold shit. He doesn't have the money you guys think he has. You know, or Toronto. Toronto's owned by a publicly traded company in Canada. They spent$255 million this year. They went over the luxury tax. They have a board of directors that sits down and improves and approves this stuff. And they did it because Toronto is Canada's baseball team. And they haven't won a World Series since what, like 93, 94? So there's strategic, smart public investment there. I shouldn't say public, but public interest from the Blue Jays to overspend. And they have the money to do it. And there's this interest that like the juice is worth the squeeze. And you've got a bunch of people sitting around a table making these decisions. So I just want to go back to the Cubs. And Tom Ricketts buys the Cubs with debt. It's not like he sold a business like Steve Cohen or sold some of his assets off and then bought another asset. He went out and raised debt, raised money from other people, and then promised to pay them back. Now what happens if Tom Ricketts doesn't pay it back? What's the collateral? What happens if Tom Ricketts defaults on the loan? What do you get? You're the creditor. What do you get? I believe Wrigley Field. I believe he collateralized collateralized the loan with Wrigley Field. I gotta do deeper research on this. But the point I'm trying to paint right now as we start the offseason conversations. Tom Rickens is not a cash flush, cash flush, rich boy, fuck face owner, the way you think he is. His dad is super rich. His dad is a ton of money. I also understand his dad was like not very much in on this. Did not necessarily want the family in on professional sports. You know, correct me. If you're out there, listen, you know more than I do. By all means, please correct me. And I promise you guys this offseason I will do an extremely deep dive on the finances. Exactly. Here are terms, or here's how much money was spent, and here's how much money they have to pay each year. The last I checked when I deep dived this in 2013, the first viral thing I ever did on the internet was like a full point by point. I think I did a 20-point breakdown. I'm like, here's how Tom bought it. Here are some of the risks. This is why it's such a unique arrangement that they would let this guy in and buy this team, and he wasn't really putting up much of anything of his own. Now, why does this matter as we talk about free agents and stuff? He's operating the Cubs with the money that the Cubs make each year. He's not personally dipping into anything. There isn't this, don't worry, I have the money. It's not all rolled up into like one big pile and you just grab some cash out of it. Because that's how I think the Padres are run. That's how I think the Phillies are run. That's how I think the Mets are run. I think it's much more complicated than people realize. And I actually think the Cubs are much more broke than people realize. I know that we spent$211 million this year. I think every nickel killed Tom Ricketts. When he says he's trying to break even, it's because I think he did a shitty job putting together a debt servicing agreement that got blown up during COVID. And people point at it and be like, that's years ago, you got to get over it. You can't. I mean, you just look at what they did with their payroll. The payroll was third or fourth in baseball in the three years preceding COVID, the four years preceding COVID. What starting in 15 or 16, the Cubs got into the top five payroll, and then were there, and then COVID happened, and then they dropped to 16, 17, and they don't extend players. And people are asking, why? Why the Cubs are worth five billion dollars? Do you think that means he has five billion dollars? If the Cubs are worth five billion, do you do where does this they just have five billion in a bank? He just goes in, cuts checks from the bank. That's crazy. And I should step back and say, you know, you're not anyone's you're not stupid for thinking that, you know, because that's kind of how it reads. The cubs are worth five billion, like, oh, we'll just go spend five billion or whatever it is, three, four billion, six billion. That's if they were for sale. If Tom Rick could put the cubs up for sale, which you know, I would like to see. I don't think anyone's talking about that. Why doesn't Tom just put the Cubs up for sale, collect your billions, you know, pay off your debt, and then go right off into the sun? You don't have to be here talking about breaking even. There's so many people that would, so many billionaires that would operate the Cubs, you know, much more passionately and effectively than this slapdick pussy shit that has me sitting here explaining this stuff to you guys. That's how I feel. We're at the point with Tom where it's like, dude, if you're gonna act like this with Wrigley Field as your backdrop, with all these people, 40,000, you know, your raise every concession item got raised by one dollar during the playoffs. Do you know how much that kills me? You cheap motherfucker. And I gotta watch my language. I'm sorry, guys. I wasn't swearing that much with Mahoney on the show. But now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, it really bothers me that we increase concession prices by a dollar for the playoffs so that Tom could make an extra what? What? And where does that go? Or is that just more indicative of the state of the finances of the Cubs? I think it's more indicative of the state of the finances. Now it's not horrible. Obviously, it's the Cubs, they've got tons of money. There's tons of money. They made the game day revenue is through the roof. They're top five in Major League Baseball in operating revenue. They make a ton of money. So much of that operating revenue has to go and pay loans that Tom Ricketts used to buy the Cubs. More than anybody else in Major League Baseball. Which means nothing to you guys. But I'm just, as we're talking in the offseason about constructing the roster and we got to spend this much money, all I hear is people are saying Tom Ricketts doesn't want to go over the luxury tax. I don't think this is a luxury tax issue. I think that's a cop-out. The luxury tax is$241 million this year. The Cubs spent$211. Even with Cody Bellinger's$25 million on the books, they're under the luxury tax. It's that's that would be a much easier problem to solve. Just pay the luxury tax. How's a publicly traded company in Canada that owns the Blue Jays comfortable paying the luxury tax? They're responsible to shareholders. Like you have a fiduciary responsibility. You can go to jail for making poor financial decisions that tanks a stock price. Those people are under the highest fucking scrutiny and they're over the luxury tax. The luxury tax don't mean shit to me. I don't even want to talk about the luxury tax again this offseason. This is a cash situation. This is a do we have the cash? And I do think Tom is now stuck in this mode of winning 90 games, going to the playoffs, is going to be good enough for a while. Because I think he's still recovering from I think his just absolute dick got blown off during COVID. And I can't say it enough. I could just sit here for the next 20 minutes and just tell you guys again and again. I'll just repeat the same sentence. Tom Ricketts got destroyed during COVID. Tom Ricketts got destroyed during COVID. And even then, I don't think people will really understand just how much his financial model for the Chicago Cubs got absolutely fucking destroyed during COVID. Which is why I'm asking him to sell the team. If you're going to be one of these guys. Now, as I understand it, Tom Ricketts will not sell the team. Now as I understand it, this is the world we live in. It's called reality. There are parameters. Here's how much money we can spend. Here's what we actually can do. And I would prefer to just be like realistic within these parameters because there's nothing I can do about the fact that Tom Ricketts owns the team or doesn't. Like we have no control over that. Just for purposes of a conversation about what I think the Cubs should do and where we should be, I think it's much easier for us to have this conversation if we understand the constraints in place. And the constraints in place are we're owned by Tom Ricketts. That guy doesn't have the cash. Not the way the Phillies do, not the way the Padres do, or the Mets do, or the Yankees do. He just doesn't. Now it sounds like he would, because you're like from billionaire fan billionaire, you know, heir to a billionaire, right? Isn't he that he's the heir to Joe Ricketts fortune? And maybe he inherits billion dollars one day. Maybe his dad gave, maybe Tommy got a couple hundred million. We're talking about playing with the big boys in Major League Baseball, some of these owners. I'm not I'm not talking about having$150 million net worth. I'm talking about having a I'm talking about having a lot of money net worth. You know? And the reality is Tom just doesn't, he just doesn't have the money these other guys. Well, to talk about the Houston Astros, Jim Crane made his money in logistics, sold a company, made a ton of money, had cash, right? Starts a company, sells it, gets cash, takes that cash, starts another logistics company that's bigger and better, that makes a fuck ton of cash. Then he bought the Houston Astros, and then he starts investing the cash into the Astros. Ricketts gets out of his investment bank that is not like a he's not anywhere near the 2.5 billion Jim Crane. Um, it's a good investment bank, I'm sure. Dad helped him, you know, a lot of government connections and all that shit. He's not Tom Ricketts is not like a sharky business guy. You know, use the family name and the reputation to get it on the Cubs. Then they had a financial model where they were going to take the game day operating revenue and all the money that you make off the Cubs to finance the purchase of the Cubs. He raised the money to do it, promised his investors a you know ridiculous return on this, that all this stuff got blown up during COVID when you don't have game day revenue, when operating revenue tanks. So, to what extent we'll report further on this offseason? But these are building blocks that we're trying to put in. These are off-season building blocks. And the first one in this show is that we love Jed Hoyer, and he's the right guy to maneuver a complicated environment, which is hey, if I if we need an extra 10 million to sign Alex Brugman, I want it. It's not available. Like that it's not like Tom's gonna be like, I, you know what, let's go over budget. Tom will never do that because he literally can't. And if you think that this is some sort of public guys, so that they can make more money behind the scenes, that is a valid criticism. Okay, I'll acknowledge that. That we could be being lied to about all this stuff so that Tom can go make an extra couple, whatever it is. I certainly do not think that's the case. Because the public cost of that guy standing in front of the Cubs fans at the annual convention getting booed. What do you guys have against the Marquee Network? You know, to the point where he's canceling fan QA at the Cubs convention because he knows he's just gonna get these hard-hitting questions from Cubs fans like, why aren't we spending more money? How come you don't care as much as we do? Obviously, this stuff bothers him. I I do think, sincerely, and believe that it's a problem Tom Rickards would love to avoid, that he can't avoid. And the only reason we're talking about this is for offseason constraints, so we understand what's possible, what are we doing? And this is why one of my big themes with this organization is the culture that we're trying to build. Because if it were easy, we would be the Dodgers. Just go spend 60 million here, 50 million there, 60 million here, stockpile every good starting pitcher. But we literally don't have the cash to do that. And people that are complaining that we're not spending enough money, spend more money. I the Tom Rickens doesn't have it. You can't make them sell the team, that'd be great. So that's perfect world stuff, and we don't spend too much time on that because like who cares? I mean, perfect world, yeah. Perfect world does not exist. So if I'm gonna sit here and talk about, oh, I'd like to get him, I'd like to get Kyle Schwarber. I'd like to get Alex Bregman. Let's use Matt Shaw's utility guy. The fuck? What drugs are you taking where we're gonna sign Alex Bregman and then use Matt Shaw's utility? We're that we have that luxury, we don't. You know, and I think it's time that we start seeing ourselves with a little bit more of a chip on our shoulder. We don't have that. We don't we don't have what the Dodgers have. We don't have what the Padres have. We don't have what the Phillies have. We don't have anywhere near that cash availability. I don't think so. I think we have a lot of money from operating revenue because it's Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs, because we sell a ton of merch and it's a global brand, you know, and you're gonna gross 500 million, 400 million, whatever off the top. And then off the top of that, you got to go pay your debt. And then you can put together your payroll. And I do think when Tom talks about breaking even, like I think that's what he's talking about. And I think if you he's what he's also fighting against is if it were up to him, he'd probably go lower to save more money. But there it's just a weird balancing act, and I don't know how well I'm articulating this, but I hope I'm articulating it at some point, that it's significantly more complicated, which makes it more difficult to just come in here and whining bitch, why didn't they just do this? Pick up Showda's option. Who gives a fuck, man? And this is why it's important to have Jed Hoyer because he's seen it all. He knows ex he knows exactly what makes his place tick. And that internal knowledge to me is just as important, if not more important, than you know trading Owen Casey or not. Or I don't I don't know what the comparison is on that. This is a very high-level esoteric conversation, but I had it in my notes. I want to have a conversation about Tom Ricketts ownership relative to other owners. The Seattle ownership came out, I believe, last year and said our goal every year is to what win 87 games, 86 games. We're trying to win fit. I think they said we're trying to win 54% of our games, and then people wanted to tar and feather them for saying that. People bitched up a storm. Sure, they're gonna play game seven tonight to go to the world series. Last year they're saying they want to win 54% of their games, people want to murder them. Nothing changed for them. They're a game away from the World Series, their first World Series ever. Are they good owners? No, they're honest. You know, they're honest. Are they better owners than Tom Ricketts? I don't know. This is where all this shit gets confusing, right? We just want a better baseball team. I I just like 92 and 70 was great this season. I didn't like losing game five against the Brewers. It would be nice to have a better team next year. But the most important thing in this episode was just getting it clearly communicated as we start to tee up these offseason conversations that is not what you think it is when someone says the Cubs are worth$5 billion. Well, then why don't they just pay all this money? Because they don't make that money, and the money they do make has to go to creditors because Tom Ricketts took out like an$800 something million dollar loan around the same time Shod Khan bought the Jags in$800 million cash. Tom Ricketts was taking out an$800 million loan. So this is the world we live in. Now, as it pertains to baseball, I think we got to build internally. I think we need Mo Baller and Owen Casey. They have to just step up. One of those guys be a superstar, or both of you guys be very good everyday players. That would be awesome. If Jackson Wiggins turns out to be a stud righty who pumps 101, that would be awesome. You know, if Justin Steele comes back as good or better, that would be so sick. If Kate Horton takes steps further, we're a better team. If Matt Shaw gets better, we're a better team. If Pete Crow Armstrong's more consistent, we're a better team. And you just go down the line of the stuff we have is very, very good to build around. In the meantime, you know, the Brewers are thinking about trading Freddie Peralta because they've got serious cash issues. Way better culture on the field, though, right? Pat Murphy's culture is just beat the shit out of us this year. So as I'm talking about culture, I'm I'm going down that path because I don't think there's any sense in complaining or talking about how we don't spend at the top. The Mets outspend us, the Dodgers outspend, but yes, they do. And that's because they got way more money. It'd be the same thing about getting mad at the guy next door who's got a way bigger house than you do. Just that's just the way it is. Is it a better house? I didn't say that. But it's bigger, maybe maybe he's got a pool. So maybe he's got a his maybe his big green egg or his smoker's a little bit bigger, a little bit nicer, or something. You know, does that mean your house sucks? Does that mean you suck? Does that mean you're a failure? No, what are we doing? Come on, come on. And I think that's just the reality Cubs fans need to like lock into. That Tom Ricketts this like billionaire just spends money left. I don't know if it's like that. I think the Cubs make a ton of money. And I think we spend every single penny. I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked to know at the end of the day exactly what the profit is. I would I would be shocked. If he was if if they were if they were I know this sounds crazy, but if they were turning a big profit, then I'm a monkey's uncle, and I'll never do the show again. But I don't think that's the case. So here's what we're doing with some programming stuff. And this is just if you've made it this far in the Monday Morning Cub show, I just want to thank you guys. So the support through the roof, the postseason cannot have gone any better. The health and state of the show um has far exceeded my expectations at this point in the calendar year. In one goal I had forever worked on was getting this show to be um at or above the size of how many people tuned into Redline Radio and Starting 9. And then maybe I've talked about this before on the show, but we're just way past, way, way, way past that point. And that means a lot to me. More than you guys could ever imagine. And one thing I'm thinking about for 2026, especially this offseason, my big thing I'm trying to understand is where to put Cubs content and where to put like what I think about stuff. Because I'm interested in publishing more shows if that's what people are interested in. I'm interested in writing more if that's what people are interested in. I know it's not. You know, the video stuff sitting around doing Cubs videos like breakdowns, look at Ian Hap swing. I don't think that stuff's like I could do that. I don't like it. I don't think that I don't consume that stuff. You know, I like having conversations, I like talking through stuff. I enjoyed doing pregame, post-game breakdowns. So something I'm thinking about next year is like, would it be valuable to do pre-series, post-series breakdowns? Should we just keep one show on Mondays because you start doing more shows and then it's hard to keep up with? And you know, should we do one show Monday morning and then do like a more detailed show that's you know, you can go subscribe to elsewhere? So that's just kind of where my head's at. But I'm thinking about it and I've enjoyed building this relationship up and getting to know you guys better, and hopefully you guys have gotten to know me a lot better through this experience, or at least what I care about with this Cubs team, you know. So that's just kind of where my head's at, which is me in in um soliciting feedback. If you if you if someone has ideas or something, a good idea or a bad one, you know. I'll take a bad idea as long as you're not sensitive for give of bad ideas. But it's really just me saying, A, thank you, be interested in doing more, C, trying to figure out what that more is and where that goes. So just to recap, guys, the Milwaukee L flag, you know, if you got a big dump in your pants about it, that's your own personal decision. I don't love that, right? I just don't love it. It would be nice if we could just throw the 57 million at Showda to pick that option up. Not sure if we're gonna do that, or if they put it on him to do the two-year$30 million option. I am very interested in that decision, and that decision has to get made before 2026. So expect that to be, expect that to be flushed out. Now, what about it? What about a sign and trade, little NBA? Can we extend Shota then use him as a trade piece? Is there someone out there who would be interested in that three year 57 million? Like those are the behind-the-scene conversations Jed has to have. And those conversations formally take place November 10th for the GM meetings. Right now, with the World Series going on, I think there's still some rules in place. You know, obviously Kyle Tucker's not gonna come back, obviously, he's gonna play for the Dodgers. And if you're gonna complain that the Dodgers are ruining baseball, like we're just a completely different conversation, completely different you know, salary cap, salary flora. I don't give a fuck how much these guys make. Pay them 10 million, pay him 10 bucks, whatever. Just give me some good baseball to watch, you know. But at the same time, obviously, there's serious labor considerations with that. Overall, just a really unique situation going on with the Chicago Cubs. Maybe the most interesting team to follow based on all of the stuff that's going on with them. But that's a conversation for a different day, guys. Just want to say again, thanks for tuning in to the Monday Morning Cubs show. If you get a chance, throw a five-star review on the show. Every little bit goes a very long way. I'll be back next Monday. We'll have some player grades out on the season, do some deeper research. Or I might save that for after the World Series. So if the World Series is over by Monday, we'll do that Monday. If not, we'll come back afterwards. And in the meantime, obviously, yes, I love you guys. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk soon. Go cut soon.