The Winter Meetings are not a guarantee of completed deals for any team. And as much as things seem to have loosened up this year relative to the last two years, it is still likely a bit of a constrained and slower market. Throw in the pending Kris Bryant grievance, which might take another two weeks to resolve, and it wouldn’t at all be crazy for the Cubs not to “complete” a transaction here at the meetings.

I genuinely mean all of that.

But I am still going to chuckle and make jokes about the following comments from Cubs GM Jed Hoyer tonight at the meetings.

Is a big move coming at the meetings? Eh, probably not:

Hoyer said he'd "probably lean no" for the Cubs making a major move before end of Winter Meetings. Things can change and develop quickly, but nothing is close at the moment. — Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) December 11, 2019

OK, but is there anything to report:

Hoyer on Cubs' progress this week: "As always with these meetings, it's a lot of conversations, a lot of laying the ground work. Nothing to report, but I feel like we've been productive for the first day-and-a-half." — Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) December 11, 2019

OK, but what about extensions:

"Those conversations are ongoing," Hoyer said about potential extensions with current players. Didn't specify names or if there are multiple players they're talking to about an extension. "I would guess not," he said when asked if anything could be done in a short period of time. — Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) December 11, 2019

OK, but are you sure nothing at all is close, perhaps using another football analogy:

Hoyer, with the quote of the winter meetings (so far): "Right now, we don't have anything in the red zone." — Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) December 11, 2019

Ah. I see. What about dinner plans? Are those at least close? Going to happen? Making progress on a selection, perhaps? Good conversations with a Yelp reviewer?

In all seriousness, as we’ve said before, in Cubs front office-speak, a deal being “close” means that it’s done and they simply haven’t announced it yet. So the Cubs saying nothing is close doesn’t mean there aren’t serious talks going on, and indeed, I expect that there have been some productive conversations.

It’s just that, with the Bryant thing and the budgetary things and the other trade talk things and the tier of the market they’re looking at things, it isn’t necessarily expected that the Cubs would immediately be jumping on any moves or have something in the red zone right now.

But come on. It’s a little funny, Jed.