David Price created quite the buzz Monday when he answered a hypothetical question about pitching for the Chicago Cubs. Price is a free agent after next season and told the assembled media, “That would probably be the coolest city to win a championship.”
David Price has a connection to the Cubs through his former pitching coach, Derek Johnson, at Vanderbilt and he sees what the Cubs are building. And he’s not the only big leaguer that has noticed what the Cubs’ front office is assembling in the minor leagues. Jon Lester mentioned the Cubs system earlier this month when he was asked about the Cubs being a possibility for him in the off-season if the Red Sox are not able to retain him.
According to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Price said, “Winning absolutely is something you want to do. Being a part of something special is also something you want to do. You can take that to a first-place tear. You could take that all the way to a last-place team like the Cubs. With the talent they have coming up they could be a very special team in a few years as well.”
Paul Sullivan caught up with David Price while he was still in Minneapolis for the break. According to the report, after Price made the comments about the Cubs “he spent part of his All-Star day trying to convince people he wasn’t lobbying to be traded to the Cubs.”
Price said, “Go back and watch the entire interview. I just said there are different teams I’d like to be traded to, and I’m not going to make any one of those teams public. I was asked what were some of the things I’d look for on a team I want to be trade to.”
David Price explained he would like to pitch for a team that has players coming up through the system to win on a yearly basis. As for the Cubs comment about winning a championship, “I think anybody in this clubhouse would probably agree that would be the coolest place to win a World Series.”
Price indicated his words were twisted into what was written and that is not his problem. According to the Tribune report, Price joked his comments about the Cubs probably gave him more Twitter followers.
With the Cubs well on the way to the franchise’s fifth straight losing season, there is a concern free agents will not want to sign with the Cubs. After all it’s the Cubs and the narrative has not been changed about the big league team. Players are noticing what the Cubs are doing with the organization from the bottom up. Does that mean they will choose the Cubs over other teams? No, it does not. The new facilities at Wrigley Field will help the front office sign the players they target. And that is the importance of the baseball side and the business side aligning to move the organization forward.