This is the process vs. results debate again. They weren't pulling a "smartest guys in the room" move -- they were aggressively pursuing a good free agent that other front offices (successful ones, by the way) also thought was a good free agent. This wasn't some market inefficiency/spin rate/4D chess thing: it just didn't work out and it sucks. the idea is that the cubs guys we expect to be smarter than people like me who were like hell yeah jason heyward! But they weren't, they were in fact dumber because they were the ones who actually gave money to the guy who can't slug more than 375 without a flukey high average. I would set the over under of baseball GMs that would have expected Heyward's offensive production to decline this much...or even at all, at 3, and they probably also suck as being baseball executives. The question was if Heyward's defense in the OF was worth the pricetag, not that his present hitting numbers were unsustainable.