Last offseason, the Chicago Cubs got things started with a bang when it was revealed they had fired manager David Ross and brought in former Milwaukee Brewers skipper Craig Counsell to replace him.
The idea was Counsell would get the most out of this roster and push them into the playoffs, especially if the front office was able to add key pieces that would limit the weaknesses that were present in 2023.
But Jed Hoyer and his front office left much to be desired after hiring Counsell, being the last team across Major League Baseball to sign a new player.
Eventually the Cubs landed some high-profile names, highlighted by trading for Los Angeles Dodgers top prospect Michael Busch and re-signing Cody Bellinger, but many felt they could have done much more to improve this roster.
The negative scenario played out with Chicago missing the playoffs once again. The bullpen, which never really was addressed this past winter, was a huge reason why they fell so far behind during the early portion of the season.
Heading into free agency this time around, the good news is their relievers took a major step forward during the second half of the year, finishing 12th in ERA with a 3.81 after having the fourth-best ERA from June 25 on, according to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.
That might prevent Hoyer from going after some bullpen arms again, but he also admitted he made a mistake by not aggressively pursuing relievers last offseason.
"Being self-critical, I feel like that's something I didn't do a good job of last offseason," the president of baseball operations said per Sharma.
It's hard to imagine he would do the same thing after sharing that insight.
There is a ton of pressure on Hoyer to put together a contending roster so that the Cubs can get into the playoffs for the first time since 2020, but if he and Counsell feel like some of the bullpen issues have been fixed, then they might look to spend money on different areas.
This will be something to monitor when free agency gets underway.
