Alex Bregman pursuit exposed the Chicago Cubs to being the middle child of MLB

Chicago Cubs fans across the country need to stop lying to themselves.

As long Tom Ricketts is the chairman of the Cubs, this team should never be taken serious in free-agent pursuits. It shouldn't take Ken Rosenthal to say the quiet part out loud.

"If not now, when? Lately, with Ricketts, the answer seems to be never," Rosenthal wrote in his teardown of Ricketts.

We are one year away from the Cubs' World Series, already a decade old, and honestly, we were the fools. The Cubs are the "should've been" dynasty, and the reason they never met that expectation is because of Ricketts. Sure, there were baseball-related misevaluations by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer that have added to the purgatory the Cubs are in, but you know how a big-market team overcomes that: spending money. Spending money is the very thing that Ricketts has proven he is afraid to do.

The "pursuit" of Bregman has exposed the Cubs on every level. Sure, there were moments when speculation driven by Cubs fans made it seem that Bregman was headed to the North Side. Congrats, Tom, you convinced a portion of the fanbase that the devil doesn't exist once again.

Alex Bregman pursuit has embarrassed the Chicago Cubs' organization.

Did the Cubs offer Bregman the most years? No. Did the Cubs offer Bregman the most money? No. Did the Cubs offer Bregman the highest AAV? No. Did the Cubs offer Bregman an opt-out after the first year? No.

Sure, the Cubs had a "competitive offer" in the sense that it would have been the largest deal the team has made in two years, but competitive it was not in terms of Bregman's actual market.

Keep that in mind when we lie to ourselves by saying the Cubs now have the space to make an extension for Kyle Tucker a priority.

The Cubs have had an offseason where they certainly expect to reach the postseason but there will be no celebration on this end. Making the postseason is the bare minimum ask of an organization that hasn't won a postseason series since 2017. It shouldn't feel "lucky" to have the chance to watch the Cubs in October but as long Ricketts is in place, that is exactly what success moving forward will be.