Dealing with the core on top of Cubs’ to-do list this winter amid MLB’s financial uncertainty

Reboot? Retool? Restart?

Now that the World Series is over and the 2020 season has come to a close, the Cubs’ front office embarks upon an offseason in the next three months that will be crucial for the franchise’s present and future.

On top of the Cubs’ list will be deciding on what to do with their core. Javy Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber are due to become free agents after the 2021 season.

The team might choose to move one or more of them at the 2021 trade deadline, but that comes with its own risks. If they aren’t dealt at the deadline, they could walk after the season for nothing, which would be devastating.

Signing one or more of the “Core Four” to long-term extensions also is not off the table, but that, too, comes with its own set of challenges. The loss of revenue across MLB because of the coronavirus pandemic makes the Cubs’ ability to spend in free agency unknown. Losses around the sport and a cloudy 2021 outlook could make front offices and ownership groups around the game gun-shy about spending.

“The only thing I can acknowledge is that we’re in a period of great uncertainty,” Cubs president Theo Epstein said. “That’s industrywide and also as far as our organization goes. We know what our losses were this year. We don’t know what our revenues are going to be next year. We don’t know how many fans we’re going to be able to have and at different points in the season.

“The fact that 29 other teams are in a similar situation, we don’t know what the free-agent marketplace is gonna look like and what the trade marketplace is gonna look like.”

Commissioner Rob Manfred added to those sentiments in a recent interview, suggesting baseball could be in for another trying year because of the league’s current financial state.

“We are going to be at historic high levels of debt,” Manfred said. “And it’s going to be difficult for the industry to weather another year where we don’t have fans in the ballpark and have other limitations on how much we can’t play and how we can play.”

The Cubs have felt the effects, laying off several staff members in the baseball and business operations since the season concluded.

The team had eight players declare for free agency Wednesday, including pitchers Tyler Chatwood, Jose Quintana and Jeremy Jeffress. They’ll be joined by Jon Lester in the coming days because the Cubs are expected to decline his $25 million club option for next season.

Last offseason was a quiet one as the team handed out only one major-league contract — to Jeffress.

With the free-agent pool murky as MLB figures out its finances, there is still potential for the Cubs to improve in 2021 without putting their future at risk.

“I think there are going to be certain fundamentals that are true of this winter and of this market that have been true for decades,” Epstein said. “One of those, especially relevant in our situation, [is] that you know a one-year deal for a really talented player is a valuable thing.

“That’s to our benefit both with what we can do in constructing the 2021 team and having an additional year of control on certain players and also potentially to our benefit in the trade market or as we look to make some changes.”