Are these still Joe Maddon’s Cubs?
4 years later, Questions Linger Surrounding a Dynasty in Decline
Another snow filled afternoon, the lingering feel of the bitter cold that envelopes the windy city creeps in a little closer. The cathedral that is Wrigley Field sits in hibernation, a silent slumber beneath its white cloak, toiling away the days before the life of a new summer is breathed into its friendly confines. For now, only the sounds of the distant city keep company with its silent majesty — the sound of car engines, horns, and occasional screams of playing school children echo off the dormant ivy. These few signs of life echo over the barren brick walls, the empty bleachers, the abandoned flag poles, the silent bleachers, all waiting for the endless summer to bloom on an early spring morning.
One day, the long cold Illinois winter will be over. We feel it in our bones now, and indeed in the very marrow of every fan across Cubs Nation. We know better than most what comes with the warm spring breeze. Forgetting the frozen past of missed field goals and monsters of the Midway, forgetting the shoveling and scraping and salting of these long winter months, Cubs fans have set their heart on fire with anticipation. It doesn’t matter what the forecast says, it doesn’t matter what the calendar dictates — the countdown in the heart of every Cubs fan becomes a daily ritual, the beckoning of a world renewed, of a new year celebration. The first signs of spring are only days away, holding the promises of summer and lasting deep into the fall, nestled in the warmth of an Arizona afternoon — Baseball is coming.
Pitchers and Catchers will soon report, and begin again the long anticipated celebration that every baseball fan takes to heart.
Because, you see, for baseball fans — we celebrate new years day in April.
We few, we lucky few, we Cubs faithful have witnessed history. We have watched the rise and fall of an empire, a division dominated by guys in blue pinstripes, a group of players impose their will on a league who had to bow before the might of the north siders. It was the mighty Cubs who burst on the scene in 2015 behind the dominating pitching of Jake and the boys. The 2016 Cubs who ended the Curse on a rain delay and a throw from KB to Rizzo in extra innings and etched the north siders into baseball history for all time. The 2017 Cubs faltered down the stretch, the bullpen gassed in the final month of the year, finally breaking apart in 2018 as the 2 game losing streak ended the Cubs hope for first a division title, then forfeited their playoff spot altogether.
Disappointment would be an understatement for the Wrigleyville faithful, watching the arc of their beloved Cubbies come to an uneventful end on the first and last game the Cubs would play in the 2018 postseason.
The Cubs fall from grace occurred in the most painful of ways, a slow motion collapse where you felt redemption was just one home run away.
The Cubs 2018 season, the promise that began with a home run off the bat of Ian Happ ended in an extra innings disaster at Wrigley field. A tragedy where it appeared to all 40,000 onlookers that nobody showed up to play for the Cubbies except for one, Javier Baez.
The offense that was built brick by brick by the great Theo Epstien, the lineup that overwhelmed pitching staffs throughout the previous 3 years, had become a shadow of itself. The “murderers row” of Rizzo-Schwarber-Bryant fell short again and again at the plate. Epstien’s aggressiveness in bringing Jason Heyward, and now Yu Darvish to the north side of Chicago appeared as though it was the making of a dynasty, but fell apart like a paper tiger — a practice in futility for a hitter past his prime, and a pitcher made of glass.
The ship was being tossed too and fro, and the skipper himself could be seen nightly, on the top step of the dugout, white beard and horn-rimmed glasses. Joe stood there stoic in his rigidness, looking as perplexed as the rest of us fans throughout the constant march back to the dugout by bewildered hitters, disappointment scrawled across their faces. This juggernaut of a ball club that was erected by the kingmaker, the rotation crafted to lay opposition to waste, a lineup to strike fear into the opposition, and this mad genius was hired to lead this titan of Chicago into championship perpetuity.
Reality, much like the bitter cold of the Chicago winter, has a way of ruining best laid plans.
Joe Maddon was the perfect manager to bring the Cubs out of the 108 year curse and into the championship limelight on a cold November morning in 2016. His patience and ability to instill confidence in his young players was the perfect antidote to over a century of pressure bearing down on shoulders of these young, talented players. The combination of elite defense and timely hitting put the Cubs in the enviable position of being the premier team built with elite talent on both sides of the ball, a young core of future all-stars, and all the momentum that a city could provide.
What happened?
I wanted a dynasty. I was promised a dynasty! the second half of 2018 felt as though the prospect of long term Cubbie supremacy was sinking in quicksand and every night we witnessed it sinking below the surface. Yu Darvish was supposed to put us back over the top, Cole Hamels was supposed to seal the deal, but believe it or not the best starting lineup on paper couldn’t change the fact that the Cubs couldn’t score runs. In fact, sometimes it would appear as though they couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a freaking boat.
Strikeouts killed the Cubs more often then not as we all helplessly watched Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber fight for who would have the most K’s in the National League.
Chile Davis came aboard to save the Cubs hitters from themselves and change the teams approach at the plate. It seemed to work for a time, but then the defense began to collapse on the other side of the ball. In what was only later seen as the decisive defensive blow, Addison Russell exited the season. This rotated El Mago to short stop and left a gaping hole at second base. Age finally caught up with Ben Zobrist, Kris Bryant missed much of the season due to injury, and Jason Heyward went back to being the 2016 version of himself (the horrendous hitter, not the inspirational speaker).
Then as quickly as the Cubs started scoring 15 runs again, the magic of Chile Davis faded into the hot August nights and the hitting took a turn for the worse. From August to September, the Cubs lead in the division slipped away bit by bit. the promise of a resurgent year undone by the slow motion train wreck the Cubs were becoming down the stretch.
Fatigue, exhaustion, injury, errors, strikeouts, and bewilderment had sealed the fate of the Cubs season long before the Rockies arrived at Wrigley field. But the one thing that stood out most of all was the lack of leadership that could be seen in the frustration of the players as a whole. The team had ceased to be greater than the sum of its parts, and the legendary patience of Joe Maddon appeared to be failing in its infinite wisdom.
Player frustration, especially when the players are young and proud, will betray the fragile balance of the locker room. Resentment will manifest when a young proud player sees someone else get more playing time, more at bats, more chances to fail due to the coaches “gut” feeling. David Bote demanded playing time only because Kris Bryant was injured. His level of play would have demanded any other team give him constant at-bats, but with Joe Maddon at the helm, Kris Bryant would have kept Bote on the bench no matter how bad he played.
Its not just the talent that makes up a team. These players are flesh and blood young guys who have to buy in to a vision of what the team will be. This vision involves guys putting in extra time at practice, in the weight room, going over scouting reports, sacrificing themselves for the good of the team on a day-in-day-out basis. The motivation to coalesce and leave egos at the door is difficult with young twenty-year-olds as it is. The “prove it” mentality of players when they break onto the scene is easily molded, as could be seen in the breakout 2015–2016 seasons the Cubs had.
The enemy of success isn’t failure, its complacency. And that’s exactly what has happened to player cohesion inside the locker room and on the field. Complacency following a championship is going to be rough for any team. It takes discipline, humility, and veteran leadership to keep all the cats herded in the same direction. That’s hard enough for franchises such as the Yankees, Giants, and Red Sox to pull off from year to year. You will notice how teams rarely go back to back anymore, but skip years between championships as they reload and refocus following a World Series parade.
This has become not only a major liability for the Cubs in a post championship era, but the undoing of a dynasty as a whole. Theo Epstien and the Ricketts family built the players for last years team on the thinking that the offense would come around, and all that needed shoring up was the starting pitching. However when the house of cards is built on the starting rotation, it becomes painfully obvious if there is no run support or defensive support behind the starters as they start to crumble under the pressure.
Tyler Chatwood was a mistake and even a blind man could have seen it last season. But Joe kept running him out to the mound for his 3 2/3 innings of 7 run ball. Hitters slumped, and it didn’t matter. Errors were made in the field, but it didn’t matter. Rookies and replacement players were kept firmly ensconced on the bench as the flailing continued on the field in a losing effort. The tone deafness of a manager who saw the talent and refused to change his approach ended up destroying what could have been a legendary 4th trip to the League Championship Series.
The great thing about coaching with patience, really the only thing it does, it instills players with confidence enough to break through and live up to their potential. This approach works best with young teams, talent that cant perform under pressure because of lack of confidence. This is the approach the 2016 Cubs needed to break through the glass ceiling. it worked for getting the Rays to a World Series, it worked for minor league clubs getting guys to the show, but defending champions need different motivation.
Were the Brewers more talented than the Cubs last year? I would say definitively not. But the Brewers were the better team last season, winning out the Central division and riding their momentum into the National League Championship Series. The Brewers are a perfect example of a team with inferior talent finding more success because the guys in the clubhouse bought into the crazy idea that the team as a whole was worth more than the sum of its parts. Christian Yelich could not have put the Brewers on top without other players following his lead and buying into the confidence in sacrificing for the success of the ball club. This has been lost in Chicago, and I’m not completely convinced that Joe Maddon can pick up the pieces.
The Cubs caught lightning in a bottle for 2016, they had a third string catcher who was the leader in the clubhouse and the glue that held the fragile hearts of a bunch of twenty-somethings together deep into November. The absence of that cohesive leadership was detrimental to the team as a whole over the next few seasons. It was an absence that was felt at all levels of the organization. Miguel Montero was supposed to fill that gap, but his jealousy over Ross’ celebrity made him into a cancer in the clubhouse. John Lester was supposed to be the guy, Ben Zobrist was supposed to fill the role as the veteran leader, even Anthony Rizzo was touted for his leadership abilities on and off the field.
But leadership shouldn’t have to start in the clubhouse. Leadership cant come from the pitchers if they cannot command the infield. Factions and cliques within the team tear at the camaraderie and end up hampering momentum during the good times and crippling it completely when a team hits the skids.
Leadership from within the players ranks cannot be depended on to set the tone for an organization, it needs to start with the manager and filter down through the other coaches on his staff.
So what if the ship was righted and the players returned to their full potential on the field? Even with Cole Hamels stepping in to be the ace, the hole in the middle infield plugged with the possible return of Addison Russell, and Yu Darvish becoming the legendary Yu Darvish once again, that talent on the field alone will not solve this crisis. Pitchers need to focus on pitching, hitters need to focus on hitting, and Ian Happ needs to learn what a strike zone is. The players need to focus on what they do best while accentuating cohesiveness through veteran leadership that supplements the vision and drive of a manager who owns the room.
Wasted potential is the hallmark of a team without leadership, a team without drive, a team without motivation.
The Chicago Cubs aren’t the team with the century old curse hanging over their heads anymore, they aren’t young kids with something to prove. These are athletes who need to have a reason to lay their egos down and buy into a new way forward. Put some pressure on these kids to perform and make changes when they slump. The time of the soft touch ended when the rings went on the fingers of each player in that locker room at Wrigley Field, and Joe Maddon needs to understand that, or he needs to step out of the way.
There is far too much talent across this team for the Cubs to find themselves in the situation they are currently in. There shouldn’t have to be a major acquisition such as Bryce Harper to fix what is perceived by fans to be a dysfunctional clubhouse. Hitting coaches come and go, its the willingness of players to want to find a better approach at the plate that matters. Hitting coaches must inspire players to humble themselves and listen to a new perspective, which for young millionaires with championship rings, is very hard to do. Establishing trust with the players when introducing new perspective could take years if not done correctly. Chile Davis’ firing at the close of last season was the epitome of finding a scapegoat. The offensive slump on a baseball team happens year round to some extent, but there are usually 2–3 hitters in the lineup that bail the rest of the team out. The problem with the Cubs was either everyone was hitting, or nobody was.
Self defeatism psychologically leads to self determinism in the sport of baseball. Its easy to see how young players can win or lose an at-bat before stepping up to the plate if their head isn’t in the right place. Everyone wants to be the hero with the home run late in the game, at precisely the moment when base runners become essential, and strike outs put zeros across the scoreboard.
It was poetic justice that the Cubs lost the final 2 games of 2018. Not because I wanted to see them fail, but because it was the culmination of an ongoing failure I had watched since early August. It had become desperation by the end of the season, an unnerving recollection on the collapse of ’69. It was an unfortunate revisiting of the utter disintegration of the best team in baseball, but only this time more pertinent, and more destructive.
The talent of the Chicago Cubs outweighs any other team that made the playoffs last season from the National League. Yet without the clarity of a vision, without pushing the young elite players, without providing leadership and mentors on and off the field, even with a healthy lineup — our fate had already been sealed.
We know Joe Maddon can manage his players to block out the pressure of winning a championship. My question is, does Joe have the capacity to put pressure on players to buy in and sacrifice to win another one? A former manager myself, I can tell you it’s no small feat. Its a herculean task that goes beyond cute t-shirts and themed road trips. The battle hardened stallions that are the Chicago Cubs need to be yolked and faced in the same direction by force. Whether or not Joe is up to the task will be an ongoing question as the uneventful off-season comes to a close.
I just hope for his sake he is up for it, otherwise we will have seen our championship window open and close in exactly 4 years time. And speaking as a fan, I thought the golden age of Cubs baseball would last a lot longer than 685 games.
One player isn’t going to save the Cubs, and it’s high time Joe Maddon start managing like it before we start talking about the last 4 seasons like they were the “good old days.”
We have been patient enough.
Big Ben Martin has been a Cubs fan since he was 3 years old, watching Cubs games on WGN in Kansas City after cartoons were over. Since moving to Texas, his Cubs love has grown to heights that make Texans blush. Self-appointed Cubs historian and amateur baseball coach. When not playing the role of loving husband or father of three, he might be found screaming at the TV screen as though the umps can hear him, or as his alter ego Big Cynical Ben @bigbenkc on Twitter. Also the Host of the Wrigley Rapport Podcast, Find us on Twitter @WrigleyPodcast
