Chairman Ricketts Covers All Things Cubs In An Interview At Spring Training

After back-to-back disappointing seasons, Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts is clearly re-energized.

Ricketts discussed the offseason additions to bolster the roster and a variety of other subjects in a detailed interview with reporters at spring training in Mesa, Ariz.

Here’s a sampling of the highlights:

- On the overall state of the club: “We're all just pretty excited to get started. If you look at everything our manager has to work with this year, compared to last year or the year before, this is a team that should compete for the division."

On President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer signing shortstop Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million deal: "Jed had conversations with a handful of the different shortstops. But with Dansby, in addition to his great makeup -- a great teammate and someone that everyone, to a man, says he's a good guy to have on your squad -- we looked at him as someone who is a great defender and a pretty good offensive player, but likely to stay at shortstop for as long as the contract.

"Whereas, there were some other guys where you weren't certain that (staying at shortstop long-term) was the case. So he was the best fit for us all along and, really, the player that Jed wanted the most in this offseason. And we're very fortunate that it worked out."

On returning to the postseason: "It was a goal that we laid out a few years ago -- try to be more consistent. The boom-and-bust cycle that has been with so many clubs in baseball, we want to kind of get out of that, out of that routine. It didn't work out, coming out of the great teams we had in '16, '17, '18. It just didn't work out to be able to make the personnel moves that could maintain a more consistent winner on the field.

"So we had to adapt to that situation, and I think Jed did a great job with that. Going forward, we'd very much like to be a team that's known for the consistency of competing for the division every year. And ultimately, that's how we're going to get back to the World Series, is just make the playoffs as many times as you can."

- On increasing the payroll to improve the club: "You want to be careful going over the CBT (Competitive Balance Tax) because there are penalties. Some of the penalties are merely financial, but over time, they become Draft pick slots and those kinds of things. So you want to be thoughtful about it. And you want to just be alert and manage around it, if you can. If we're midseason and we need a player, we'll do what we have to do then."

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