Ricketts said he thought President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer had a great offseason and that the Cubs definitely have what they need to improve on last year’s team.

After Ricketts addressed the team, he held a media conference. Here are four things to remember from it.

If the Cubs wish to bolster their squad, they still have flexibility to maneuver below the collective bargaining tax level.

With a projected CBT payroll of roughly $205 million, they are currently considerably below the $237 million starting requirement for the 2024 season. Hoyer is in charge of making judgments regarding the most effective use of the funds, but Ricketts and Hoyer never disclose the precise amounts of the yearly baseball operations budget.

In essence, the budget is established as we efficiently calculate the costs; hence, it isn’t as if we decide to spend a lot of money and pursue a championship window at this point, according to Ricketts. Our goal is to maintain consistency. Being among the teams who consistently strive to win the division is the aim, and every year presents a chance to do so. Compared to let’s just go for it one year, I attempt to look at the budget far more frequently.

The Cubs have surpassed the CBT level in the past while owned by the Ricketts family. But Ricketts said on Monday that the Cubs would need to raise income on par with Hoyer’s budget in order for it to grow.

You guys can kind of forget that although we do make a lot of money, we also pay a lot in taxes—$20 million annually—to maintain the ballpark, according to Ricketts. “We incur many costs that other teams do not.” We are now at CBT levels. We kind of felt like that was our natural location, and that ought to be enough to win our division year after year and maintain consistency.

Between Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s $325 million contract and Shohei Ohtani’s record $700 million agreement, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ offseason splurge was unavoidable. Ricketts merely mentioned that the Dodgers’ financial status is significantly different from that of any other MLB team due to their television arrangement, declining to comment on how other teams spend their money.

All we have to do is wait for him and his agency to make contact. It might happen in a few weeks or it might happen at any moment. We’ll just have to wait and see.

A more aggressive strategy in which they attempt to close a deal as quickly as possible would be the counter to the Cubs’ waiting game. Ricketts made it apparent that although the Cubs and Bellinger’s team had spoken, a negotiation has not yet taken place.

The 2027 and 2028 All-Star games will be decided by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who indicated last week that his current five-year term will be his last in the role. The Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays were notably highlighted by Manfred as potential hosts of a game, something that neither team has done since 1990 and 1991, respectively.

Manfred stated, “I am greatly impacted by two things with regard to those two years.” 1. When was the last time you played a game? When it comes to that factor, Toronto does fairly well. Chicago is older, in my opinion. The other significant factor is the city’s willingness to take action on those matters.

Ricketts only wanted to clarify that the problems are all security-related and declined to go into detail about what the Cubs and the city need to do to ensure a Midsummer Classic.

Many teams would like to see the All-Star games. They are difficult to obtain since they are important to the city’s economy. We need to resolve a few issues with me.