Cubs to Cards: Nice Doing Business Against You

The Chicago Cubs took advantage of every little St Louis miscue in last season's playoffs.

Now, this winter, they're simply taking advantage of the Cardinals.

It's not just that the Cubbies spirited away two of their heated rivals' key players from last season, it's the way that they did it:

By offering either the same or less money.

• John Lackey rejected a $15.8million qualifying offer from the Cardinals and then said no to roughly doubling that amount in a two-year deal. He then signed for roughly the same amount in Chicago.
• Jason Heyward has acknowledged that the Cardinals' offer to him was greater than the Cubs' package, but he signed with Chicago anyway.

Zack Greinke must be rolling in his grave wad of dosh.

Joe Maddon & Co will be spinning these signings to the max:

But what to make of all this in the Gateway City, alleged home of the best fans in baseball?

Well, putting it all in perspective would be a good start, per Joe Gordon of the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

Maybe Heyward will become a beast in Wrigley Field and maybe he will be merely a very good player. Maybe the Cardinals will end up lamenting his departure or maybe the front office will feel immense relief ... [The] trick is to become more aggressive without taking stupid long-term risks. The Cardinals have remained in contention all these years by running a smarter operation than their peers.

True.

This is, believe it or not, a small-market club that gets to participate in the competitive balance draft, a point that frosts balls in front offices everywhere, including those in Chicago.

This is also a club that's rarely blinded by big-brand names. After all, it won a World Series after losing Albert Pujols to the Angels and owner Arte Moreno's drunken-sailor spending.

That 'way' just got dented by the Cubbie Warm-&-Fuzzy.

Time for the vaunted Cardinal farm system and crafty front office to step up.

And do know they're marking 18 dates on the 2016 NL schedule up and down the Midwest and in the respective Nations everywhere. The so-called friendly rivalry just got edgier.