By Mike Steffanos December 30, 2020
A few more thoughts on the big moves by the Padres discussed yesterday. If I was a Cubs fan, I would not be a happy camper right now. After a pair of fifth place finishes in 2010 and 2011, Theo Epstein was hired to run the Cubs, and immediately tanked the next couple of seasons to rebuild the farm. After suffering through a 101 loss season in 2012 and a 96 loss season the following year, Cub fans endured one final fifth place finish in 2014 before making the playoffs with a 97-win club in 2015. That team, of course, lost in the NLCS to the Mets, but the Cubs peaked the following season with 103 wins and a World Series championship.
The success the Cubs had contributed to more teams emulating the tanking route they took. Indeed, Chicago looked like a potential dynasty after winning the 2016 title, but the ensuing years didn't work out quite that way. They won the NL Central the following season, but with 11 fewer wins, and got drubbed by the Dodgers in the 2017 NLCS. They were a wild card team in 2018, but didn't advance, fell to third place in 2019 and got manager Joe Maddon fired, and won a pretty weak division this year but were toppled by the upstart Marlins in the playoffs.
I'm not a big fan personally of the Ricketts family that owns the team. Tom Ricketts was one of the billionaire club owners who went on local sports talk radio this spring to whine about how unfair the players were being in negotiations. The handwriting seemed to be on the wall when the Cubs announced massive layoffs within the organization — over 100 total, with half the layoffs coming from baseball operations. Theo Epstein stepping down not the long afterwards did not seem like a coincidence. Sure enough, the Cubs non-tendered World Series hero Kyle Schwarber and some other players early this month, and traded Yu Darvish for very young prospects who are far, far away from the majors. GM Jed Hoyer insists that the trade wasn't about a salary dump. Yeah, whatever.
The NL Central might be the weakest division in baseball. The Cubs might still be good enough to win that thing, but they're much weaker today than they were at the beginning of the month. Management can say what they want, but the Cubs look like a team that is retrenching rather than going for it in a year when many key players are in their last season before free agency. If I was a fan of that team, I would have expected them to go for it one last time before possibly taking a step back, and angry about what they seem to be doing. Again, that division is so weak. Make the playoffs, get hot at the right time and a bit lucky, and next thing you know you have a second championship for the fans. There would still be 2 years left on Darvish's contract after next season, so he could have still been traded after the Cubs went for it one last time.
In a way, the Cubs are an example of how fragile dynasties built upon tanking are. Having so many players come up together leads to many of them also hitting free agency at the same time. Now I don't know what the plan would have been if the pandemic didn't hit, the organization didn't lay off so many key people and Epstein didn't leave, but I would tend to doubt they'd be taking a step back this season. Whether it's a brief step backwards or a longer-term retrenchment remains to be seen.
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5 comments:
I would like to see if the Mets get Sugano. If not I will be disappointed. I think this is a perfect opportunity for them to get a decent starting pitcher for not much money. They say he should get around $12 million/year. That is a lot less than Bauer.
I don't know enough about the guy to say for sure, but they definitely have to look at different options if the numbers on Bauer are true
Strong rumor out now that the Mets will sign a free agent in the next few days. One insider thinks it will be Sugano. We will see.
The odds of Bauer coming close to last years #'s is very slim and from what I'm hearing he wants a bundle. I'd do Sugano and Walker and say Hendricks and/or Hand and sign Springer. The DH decision for us is huge and MLB needs to get it done. I love defense and would do McNeil and Rosario for Lindor and I'm dreaming of watching an up the middle of McCann C, Gimenez 2B, Lindor SS and CF Springer. My lineup is (with the DH) Nimmo LF, Lindor SS, Conforto RF, Springer CF, Alonso DH, Smith 1B, Davis 3B, Gimenez 2B and McCann C. Starting staff is Degrom, Stroman, Sugano, Walker, and Peterson with a bullpen of Diaz, Lugo, May, lets say Hendricks and Familia to start out with and then other add and subtracts in ST but it's certainly a team I'd go to war with what do you guys think?
Also a huge boost we hope from Thor mid-season
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