The Cubs and the Mets have very sizable payrolls and terrible teams.  The Mets are just a mess, but it goes to show that you can be a big market team, spend a lot of money and it doesn't guarantee you anything. My guess is the Cubs wallow in mediocrity for the next few seasons.   They seemingly have a real chance to turn things around via free agency over the next couple years.  However, there is very little in that farm system to help them out.  When left to only build via free agency, teams tend to get desprate and sign bad contracts.  See Pujols 10 years 300M.

They have to deal with Soriano @ 18M/year thru 2014

Good news, maybe, for them is Zambrano, Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez, Pena and Garza all become free agents after this year, most likely.  There are some vesting options involved that I don't think will vest.  All those players are over-paid except for Garza.  If Garza gets off to a decent start, or even if he doesn't, i'd try to re-up him at a decent price if I were the Cubbies.

Dempster has a 14M player option for next season.  I'd guess, if he has a good year, he opts out to sign one last contract, which isn't great news for the Cubs as he's been a horse for them in the rotation.

Their biggest issues offensively have been injuries (hello Ramirez and Lee) and inneffectiveness (Soriano/Fukudome) for their big ticket offensive players.  That and they've been without a decent leadoff hitter for years.

Pitching wise, they've had some decent arms around, but with Zambrano being combustable and not the Ace they needed guys are pitching out of line.  Dempster and Lilly would have been a solid 2/3 behind a true Ace, but that wasn't the case.

How do they go about fixing it?  I think this year is going to be a wash, but you never know with that division.  Next year, will be interesting.