When the 2023 regular season ended, the Chicago Cubs found themselves one game outside of the playoff picture after being a prevalent holder of a Wild Card spot for the majority of the second half of the year.

The disappointment of missing the postseason had ownership and the front office proclaim they would be aggressive in building a playoff contender to compete in 2024.

This culminated in them hiring Craig Counsell to be their manager and firing David Ross.

Yet, the Cubs are the only team that hasn’t made an addition to their Major League roster this offseason.

On the flip side, their division rival Cincinnati Reds have been the aggressive ones, making solid addition after solid addition.

They signed relievers Nick Martinez and Emilio Pagan to a two-year, $26 million and two-year, $16 million contract respectively. They then added former Chicago third baseman, Jeimer Candelario, to a three-year, $45 million deal and just recently signed starter, Frankie Montas, to a one-year, $16 million contract.

Those are the aggressive moves that the Cubs could have made.

After all, the Reds also found themselves just missing the playoffs last year, finishing two games out of the final Wild Card spot.

Of course, the offseason isn’t over yet and Chicago could become major players in the second wave of free agency to get the star power that they were looking for at the beginning.

The NL Central division seems to be wide open heading into 2024 and the Cubs should have been in prime position to take advantage of that.

But it’s been Cincinnati who has decided to make major upgrades to their roster and positioned themselves as potentially the team to beat in the division.

Chicago can change that, but it will require them to become just as aggressive as their divisional foe has been so far.