Experts Have Chicago Cubs Whiffing in Free Agency

The Chicago Cubs will enter the 2024 season with a new manager at the helm after the front office made an aggressive move to get Craig Counsell.

The shocking news kicked off the Hot Stove around the MLB and might be a preview of what's to come in free agency with superstar Shohei Ohtani on the market.

Beyond Ohtani, this class isn't viewed to be as deep as last year's. Still, there are some really good players that are available and will impact teams in their efforts to compete for a World Series title.

That's the goal of the Cubs.

Making their move for Counsell signals that they're done rebuilding and are ready to compete for division and MLB titles.

To do that, they'll need to upgrade the talent on their roster and should be one of the biggest players this offseason.

Unfortunately for Chicago, experts at MLB.com think that they are going to whiff on the major free agents.

58 people at MLB.com voted on where they think these players will end up when the offseason ends. The teams who received the majority of the votes were listed as the destination.

The Cubs didn't have a single prediction go their way.

According to these results, they'd miss out on re-signing their star Cody Bellinger, Shohei Ohtani, third base target Matt Chapman, starter Aaron Nola and Japanese phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Not only would this be disappointing, it could potentially be debilitating.

Without Bellinger, their lineup is not as potent and their defense would take a hit. Not landing a starting pitcher exposes them to reliance on young, largely unproven pieces.

They could still turn to the trade market to add players, but that dips into their prospect pool that seems primed to start playing major roles for the franchise in the coming years.

Of course, these are just predictions.

But it's also a reminder that the worst case scenario of coming up empty handed is still a possibility.