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Cubs' Ricketts Explains How Team Views Luxury Tax Going Into Season

Ricketts said that the club's new Marquee RSN eventually will provide more financial resourcesGETTY IMAGES

Cubs Chair Tom Ricketts said while the competitive balance tax is not the "defining factor" for the club, it is "definitely a factor that every team has to deal with, at least every large-market team," according to Mark Gonzales of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. During his annual Spring Training news conference yesterday, Ricketts offered a "precise explanation of the consequences of exceeding the CBT payroll threshold," which is $208M this season. The Cubs paid a 20% penalty of $7.5M for going over the threshold in '19 and would face a 30% penalty for exceeding the threshold again this season. Revenue streams from the new Marquee Sports Network "won't take effect until a few years into the agreement, and the impact on player payroll won't be known until the next" CBA in '22. Ricketts said of the club's fledgling RSN, "Once it's fully distributed and fully operational, it will give us more financial resources. But how we put those to use or how much that is, it's way too early to tell" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/18).

TRADING BLOCK: On whether the Cubs will have to trade players to get under the CBT, Ricketts said, "That's what our baseball guys look at all the time, trying to optimize that. Obviously, paying large taxes is really inefficient and not a great use of team resources. If there's a way to put a great team on the field and not pay that, they will." Ricketts affirmed that the team's revenues still are being reinvested in the on-field product, saying, "We have to give a sufficient amount of resources to put the best team on the field." Ricketts said the Cubs will be "among the top spenders and the teams with the most financial resources." But he added, "The most financial resources doesn't always equate to the most wins. We have to manage that as well" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 2/18). In Chicago, Paul Sullivan notes Ricketts "skirted a question about whether the Cubs could sign both" 3B Kris Bryant and SS Javier Baez to contract extensions. He said, "Just because you spend a lot of money doesn't mean you're going to win. We've seen that in our own organization the last couple years. We saw that our first year where we had the third-highest payroll and maybe the 22nd-best record." Ricketts: "The fact is, it's not really about how much you spend. It's about where you spend it and getting the right guys on board." Sullivan writes in other words, the Cubs are "not going over the luxury-tax threshold." Sullivan: "Get over it" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/18).

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