Even if next year Bryant, Baez, Alcantara and maybe Soler come up and mash, get us into the playoff hunt and turn us into the hot young team a high priced FA could see fitting in and winning rings with for many years? If we are offering similar money as all the other teams, I'd like our chances based off our projected future. we're not going to have real money until 2020. we'll get horrifically outbid by half the league if he's really up for grabs. given how little we have tied up in the situation he's talking about, we have real money right now. not unless we're using the cheese in discarded pizza boxes as currency now. The Cubs didn't spend the money that they had allotted for this offseason and Theo has said it will roll over. Sorianos contract and others fall off the books this year. I thought I read the Cubs had 55 million locked up for next season and that was including Shark. Dealing Shark and Hammel a month early also help the Cubs net another $5M in savings this season.