Crane Kenney on Cubs' payroll: 'The CBT is not a governor'

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00:00You know, just for Cubs fans listening here, this is an interesting moment.

00:04You know, we always hear the money raised from Crane's side of the ledger

00:08gets reinvested into Jed's side of the ledger.

00:10What can you guys tell us about the competitive balance tax

00:15and a governor that you maybe have on what you got going on, Jed,

00:20and like this year compared to next year?

00:21Cubs fans are very interested in how that's going to look year over year

00:25as they kind of make their thoughts about optimism, I guess,

00:30Yeah, next year is still something that we're deciding.

00:35But as far as this year, we sort of looked at it at the end of February.

00:41We were likely to be under the tax, but once we decided to sign Bellinger,

00:48we sort of brought what I thought was a fantastic deal for the Cubs

00:52to bring back Cody, and knowing that when we did that,

00:56that was very likely to trigger us being over the tax.

00:59And, you know, Tom and Crane were certainly in favor of that,

01:02you know, given what it meant for the club.

01:04So, and the expectation is certainly that it will probably go over this year.

01:08And, you know, the reality is that it's always been a discussion.

01:12There's never been any real desire, like, to stay under every year.

01:17It's been like, let's make those decisions on a year-to-year basis.

01:20But we haven't decided yet for next year.

01:22But the expectation is that we'll be over this year.

01:26And that's really because, you know, the decision was made to invest in Cody

01:31at the end of February when we'd already, you know,

01:33committed dollars to other players, you know, during the offseason.

01:38Yeah, and I'd say the third person who should be on the call that isn't is Tom.

01:42And exactly what Jed said is how it works, which is, you know,

01:46we're trying to put the best team on the field that we can.

01:51The CBT is not a governor.

01:53I think I know some people think that we're afraid to trip the tacks.

01:57And, you know, for the right player and the right circumstance and

02:00the right season, it's not a governor and it wasn't this year.

02:04And, you know, that's credit to our ownership who, you know,

02:08they want to win like everyone else.