3 bargain free agents Cubs could’ve signed instead of paying Craig Counsell

The Chicago Cubs started the offseason with the boldest of moves, prying Craig Counsell away from their division rivals in Milwaukee with the largest managerial contract in MLB history. Worth $40 million over five years, the Counsell contract effectively reset the market. It also put the Cubs on top of the food chain in the NL Central. Or so we thought.

After narrowly missing the postseason in 2023, the Cubs are even worse in 2024. Jed Hoyer managed to re-sign Cody Bellinger, land Shota Imanaga, and even trade for Isaac Paredes at the end of July, but none of that has pushed Chicago above .500 and into the Wild Card picture. There's still time, and the National League is weak enough for the Cubs to make a run, but the postseason is a long shot. Plain and simple.

Counsell has been a source of tremendous frustration for the Cubs fandom this season. Viewed by many as baseball's brightest mind in Milwaukee, Counsell's reputation has done a 180 since his big-market upgrade. He can't seem to get a handle on the Cubs' bullpen and the offense remains completely anemic, despite Counsell's efforts to reshape the lineup.

There are plenty of personnel issues that fall outside of Counsell's purview, but the Cubs are spending more money than any other team on a manager who has broadly underperformed in his first season at the helm. Counsell has earned some benefit of the doubt — he'll get at least a few years to build a culture and establish his foothold in Chicago — but it's hard not to think about how the Cubs' season might have gone if that money was redirected toward personnel upgrades. Was David Ross all that bad?

Here are a few bargain-bin free agents the Cubs missed out on. All for less than Counsell's $8 million annual salary.

3. Erick Fedde

After a brief sojourn in Korea's KBO, Erick Fedde returned to the MLB ranks last offseason on a two-year, $15 million contract with the Chicago White Sox. He was more or less the most dependable ace in the Southsiders' rotation, posting a 3.11 ERA and 1.14 WHIP in 21 starts prior to the trade deadline. He has struggled a bit since being dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals, but Fedde had a winning record (7-4) on a historically bad team. That's not nothing.

The Cubs have a solid 1-2 punch atop their rotation in Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga, but pitching depth has been a source of stress all season. Javier Assad has regressed after a blistering start to the season, while Kyle Hendricks has struggled for the majority of the 2024 campaign. One more dependable starter would have gone a long way toward shoring up Counsell's rickety bullpen.

Fedde does not have the most spectacular stuff, but he's able to encourage soft contact with a compelling blend of sweepers and sinkers. He's probably not as good as the stats make him look, and a bit of late-season regression with the Cardinals could put a new twist on how Fedde's MLB return is perceived. Still, the market for quality starters has rocketed off the charts. To get two years of team control over a bankable mid-rotation arm for $7.5 million qualifies as a steal.

That was a missed opportunity for the Cubs. Plain and simple.

2. Tommy Pham

The White Sox inked Tommy Pham to a one-year, $6 million contract after his World Series run with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the simplest terms, Pham suffered from poor circumstances. He was thwacking the ball rather well out of the gate, but the White Sox offense just did not hold up around him. Pham helped Chicago navigate injuries in the outfield and supplied reliable pop before he, too, was traded (alongside the aforementioned Erick Fedde) to the Cardinals at the deadline.

This is a triple whammy of frustration for Cubs fans. Not only did the Cubs not land Pham initially, but he wound up across town in White Sox garb. Then, he was dealt to the Cardinals, a team working antithetically to Chicago's interests in the NL Central. Rather than helping the Cubs, Fedde and Pham are actively harming the Cubs.

It has been yet another solid campaign at the plate for Pham. There is only so much value in a 36-year-old on a short-term deal, but the Cubs' offense lacks slugging. Pham would've been an impactful depth piece. He's slashing .263/.330/.394 on the season with seven home runs and 29 RBI in 320 ABs. He was integral to the Diamondbacks' postseason run last October, so we know he's capable of showing up down the stretch.

Pham probably gets buried in the Cubs' depth chart a bit with Pete Crow-Armstrong netting important developmental reps and Mike Tauchman offering platoon services, but all the same, he is a quality depth bat whom the Cubs passed on. Pham operates with extreme discipline at the plate and his expected batting average (.281) sits in the 88th percentile, so he has been a victim of bad luck this season. That means he is due for a positive uptick down the stretch.

1. Michael Lorenzen

The Texas Rangers inked Michael Lorenzen to a discount one-year, $4.5 million contract despite his 2023 All-Star berth. Last season was a tale of two halves for Lorenzen, who dominated early with the Detroit Tigers but struggled down the stretch after a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies. In terms of absolute ceiling, however, he was among the best starting pitchers available last winter. It's unclear why he couldn't squeeze more money out of a team.

This absolutely qualifies as a missed opportunity for the Cubs. Even if Lorenzen didn't cut it as a starter, he has performed well in bullpen roles before. Chicago's bullpen depth is chronically thin, so the Cubs would have found a way to benefit from Lorenzen's skill set one way or another.

It has been another productive campaign for the 32-year-old, even split between a couple teams. Texas dealt Lorenzen to the Kansas City Royals at the deadline. Lorenzen has put together three rock-solid starts since the move and it now looks as though he will be pitching potential high-leverage innings in the playoffs. The Cubs are trending in the wrong direction, in large part due to their pitching staff's inability to hold up under pressure. We knew Chicago's offense was a weak point, but this bullpen was supposed to perform better.

Lorenzen would have been a borderline All-Star starter at best, or a quality bullpen arm at worst for the Cubbies. Through 22 games (21 starts), Lorenzen has a 3.68 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. His numbers are probably better than they should be judging from his analytics profile, but even so, Lorenzen's contract number is well worth it.