How 'irregular' free-agent market contributed to Cubs' 40-man roster crunch

MESA, Ariz. — If Cubs first baseman Garrett Cooper had known how this offseason was going to play out, he would have approached it differently.

‘‘If it was up to me, I probably would have taken the first offer that I got,’’ he said. ‘‘But you live and learn. And you learn your first time through free agency. [It] was definitely a weird one.’’

The offseason was slow and late-moving. With less than three weeks left in spring training, there are still high-profile free agents available, which has backed up the market as a whole.

The finger-pointing already has begun. MLB super-agent Scott Boras, who represents outfielder Cody Bellinger, third baseman Matt Chapman and pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery — the ‘‘Boras Four,’’ as they became known — has taken plenty of criticism. The two position players finally signed in the last couple of weeks, but both pitchers are still available.

In turn, Boras has criticized owners for being unwilling to spend, despite record revenues the last two seasons.

‘‘We have some irregularity going on in this current market,’’ he said at Bellinger’s news conference last week.

Regardless of who was at fault, the unique offseason helped bring Cooper to Cubs camp and complicated the team’s roster decisions with a strong position-player group of non-roster
invitees.

‘‘I expect some really hard decisions,’’ president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Wednesday. ‘‘It’s a good problem to have. And also knowing that the guys that we put out there on waivers are going to get claimed. So it’s a matter of, can we find trades if we have to do that? It’s a good feeling, but also it’s hard to get to that place where you know that you’re potentially sending good players out to other teams.’’

In addition to Cooper, the Cubs signed first baseman Dominic Smith and outfielder David Peralta to minor-league deals with invitations to major-league camp. But their free-agency situations differed from Cooper’s in that Smith (hamate bone) and Peralta (left flexor tendon) were coming off offseason surgery.

Cooper was an All-Star in 2022. And though his offensive production trailed off some in the second half of last season after being traded from the Marlins to the Padres, he was expected to get a major-league deal.

‘‘There were multiple teams with multiple MLB offers that just weren’t the value we were looking for,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘So we progressed. And as it got toward later, there were a lot of guys that still hadn’t signed.’’

Eventually, it became clear that if Cooper wanted to get into camp with a comfortable number of games before Opening Day, he likely would have to take a minor-league deal. He said he chose between the Cubs and Red Sox.

‘‘I just thought the situation was a little bit better here, where I could come in and win a spot,’’ Cooper said.

The Cubs have a lot of depth at first base. Michael Busch, who is already on the 40-man roster, is expected to get the first crack at regular playing time there. Bellinger plays center field and first base, and Patrick Wisdom can contribute at both corner-infield positions.

The Cubs would have to clear a spot on their 40-man roster to include Smith or Cooper on their Opening Day roster, but both have the ability to opt out this spring if they don’t make the team, sources said.

‘‘These things evolve with performance and injuries,’’ Hoyer said. ‘‘Sometimes looking at it in terms of, ‘He’s blocked by so-and-so,’ it takes one injury, and that guy all of a sudden may have the whole year here.’’

Cooper and Wisdom are the only right-handed hitters in the first-base mix. Wisdom is nearing a return from tightness in his right quad, and Cooper has racked up six at-bats in back-to-back games in his absence.

If the Cubs don’t include Cooper on their Opening Day roster, they likely will lose him. Between his track record and the tape he will have built up this spring, he’s expected to have other options.

‘‘The situation is what it is,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘It’s not just myself; there’s tons of guys that are sitting at home that I talk to all the time that shouldn’t be sitting at home. . . . So no regrets. It’s just part of the business.’’