The Cubs’ equipment truck has arrived in Mesa

MESA, Arizona — It is a sign of spring, every year, the arrival of the Cubs’ equipment truck after a long drive from Chicago.

It is a sign of this spring that the arrival of the truck, which ordinarily would be a blip on the baseball season radar, is about all we have for news.

And so, here it is, a full article on the arrival of the equipment truck. I was in Mesa just before 1 p.m. and the unloading was in full gear. There were a couple of players helping out; I saw Brandon Morrow and Willson Contreras. A couple of other fans were there, looking for autographs; they departed a bit before I did and I don’t know if they succeeded or not. Here’s a short video of the unloading (you can see Contreras and Carrie Muskat walk across the frame):

I didn’t see these boxes, which were spotted in Chicago before the truck left on Friday:

Now, they might have been unloaded before I got there, or maybe they dropped them off in some other city where Jake might sign? Who knows?

Like I said, this is what we have for news, so here it is. Cubs pitchers and catchers will be working out using that gear in just nine more days, though as noted above, a few of them are in town already.

There is one more bit of news to share with you:

It seems ridiculous that the team and the player couldn’t split the difference on this one, but we might wind up with the first Cubs arb hearing in eight years (Ryan Theriot was the last one) and the first under Theo Epstein’s leadership. Pedro Strop had an arb hearing scheduled in 2015 and Jake had one in 2016, but both players settled before the actual hearing date.

Perhaps that will happen in this case, too. You can almost see the arbitrator shaking his head and thinking, “They couldn’t have made a deal between these numbers?”

Real baseball is coming soon. I promise.