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Since the 2006-7 offseason we have talked about the backloaded contracts and the impact that they would one day have on the Chicago Cubs. Well ladies and gents, that time has come and we are in the eye of the storm this offseason. The crazy spending spree that the Cubs went on following 2006 and 2007 had ramifications. The ramifications become real clear when you see the chart below from Cot’s baseball contracts:

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The Cubs find themselves second only to the Yankees in payroll committed to 2010. This is before the first free agent has been signed in baseball. The ramifications from the Cubs spending spree the previous three offseasons is they will have no room to maneuver and very little room to improve on a club that finished up the track in the NL Central in 2009.

The funny thing about much of this is when the Cubs were giving out many of these contracts the team was known to be on the block. They were the last years of TribCo ownership and they decided to spend like there was ‘no tomorrow’, because there wasn’t. Many of us assumed Jim Hendry was creating a mess that would one day be handled by another GM. Well Jim Hendry is still here and this offseason he gets to deal with the mess that Tribco, John McDonough, Crane Kenney and he created. The Cubs have very little financial flexibility this offseason. Their flexibility is so bad a quality starting pitcher like Rich Harden is going to be allowed to walk as opposed to signing him (the Cubs aren’t even offering arbitration–fearful he may accept it). You may think this is no big deal, but pitchers with Harden’s talent are not easy to come by.

Jim Hendry has repeated that the Cubs are more likely to be active in the trade market as opposed to the free agent market. That’s fine and dandy, the trouble is Jim Hendry gave out no trade clauses to most of his high priced veteran talent. So the players Hendry can trade, besides Milton Bradley–who has no value, are the cheap ones and the cost controlled ones. Way to give yourself flexibility Cruller Jim.

This financial mess puts the Cubs new owners in a real awkward position. Some hoped that the Cubs new owners would just spend their way through this turbulence. Well that seems like a real easy thing to do when it ain’t your money. The truth is the Cubs had the third highest payroll in 2009. They will be in the top 5 in 2010. The team is going to increase payroll by a small amount in 2010. It won’t be alot, but it won’t be a decrease, which in these economic times is saying something (According to the USA Today: “14 Major League clubs cut payroll from a year ago, and 10 of those reduced overhead by $10 million or more.” ).

If Tom Ricketts wanted to bring in new baseball people to try and clean up this mess who could blame him? But really there is very little anyone could do for the Cubs this offseason. It appears that Ricketts is willing to give Jim Hendry and Crane Kenney a chance. Hendry appears to have enough rope at this point to end his career as Cubs GM. Botching the expected Milton Bradley trade in the coming weeks might just be the start of Hendry’s last offseason as Cubs GM.