It's almost the weekend so im being optimistic
the reason the dodgers are the Dodgers is because
Big market/access to more money
Farm that consistently produces very good players, giving them financial flexibility
They use that flexibility to target specific stars in trades (then extend them) or FA.
This keeps their payroll and LT number manageable
The Cubs currently
Are in a big market with access to more money
A farm that never produces horsefeathers (outside of the magical 2016 run)
Not the same level of financial flexibility because we're overpaying for midtier guys like taillon because we are not developing good depth
Hence, our payroll is more susceptible to getting fucked up through FA because we can't yet supplement the roster with cheap depth
Out of all the big acquistions this year, 2 (ohtani, yamamato) clearly do not have any interest in the cubs, and Soto required something of an overpay in prospects (which i would be willing to do, but i imagine the cubs weren't because...)
They want Counsell's first year to be about integrating prospects to see if he can get more out of the MLB readyish guys, banking on development from the prospect tier that's still a year or two away, and figuring out how far away they truly are.
My guess is they don't spend until the farm is producing guys, and then they go and try to make one or two big splashes in FA to push the team over the top.
If you look back to the only success the franchise has ever had, it came when they were producing stars (Rizzo, KB, Javy) and depth guys like Soler or whatever. Once those guys were cooking at the MLB level, they spent on Heyward (Jed's lament) Lester and Zobrist then filled it in with trade deadline acquistions to fill holes.
By Monday i'll be in a bad mood again and be much less forgiving but for 72 hours this is how i feel