NEWSLETTER
Before I get into my own personal deconstruction of this season and postseason, and where the Cubs go from here – a discussion process that’s gonna play out over the next several months – I want to share what they, themselves, had to say after yesterday’s loss to the Marlins and rapid exit from the postseason. For more of their comments, see here, here, here, here, and here, among other places.
David Ross: “Disappointed. Sad, maybe. There’s some anger, I’m sure. But, big picture-wise, I think we’re all going to look back on this season and realize the sacrifices that we all made …. It was a hard season, for sure. Mentally, physically, emotionally, this was — and there’s still teams going, I’m not trying to make an excuse — this is just facts. 2020 is no joke …. We just never really got going. I never thought we really hit our stride offensively. We had some spurts there for a moment. These guys will go into the offseason and work and try to be better going into next year. But just felt like we could never get going this year.”
Yu Darvish: “I’m very sad right now because my focus today was to have [Jon] Lester pitch one more start at Wrigley. That was my goal today, and I couldn’t make that happen. I’m very disappointed.”
Javy Báez: “We didn’t get hot. Tony didn’t get hot, I didn’t get hot, Schwarber didn’t get hot. It’s something that we were trying and trying and trying and it just kept going back for us. There’s no excuse, we compete and we give everything we have. It just didn’t go our way …. I feel like we were competing against the other team and then against our struggle.”
Anthony Rizzo: “Just numb. It just sucks. Offensively, we just couldn’t get it going at all throughout the year …. You see Darvish out there – our whole pitching staff really – just carrying us, and us not being able to come through, it’s just heartbreaking, it’s upsetting, it’s all of the above …. When you come up short-handed, it’s a bad feeling. You’ve got guys in this clubhouse you’ll never be teammates with again. You’ve got friends in this clubhouse that you’ll never see, or you’ll see from afar. The end of the year is never easy.”
Willson Contreras: “I think as a group we could have done a lot more. A better approach and better at-bats. I think we all expected to come together as a team. But first, it starts individually. What have you done, what are you doing and what kind of adjustment you have to make each and every game. That’s something not everybody did and something we all need to get better at.”
Kris Bryant: “It just feels different than every other year when we get eliminated. I don’t know why. I don’t have the answers for that. It’s just a weird feeling …. [This season is] just the weirdest thing that I have experienced maybe my whole life. Definitely my baseball career, but maybe my whole life.”
Jason Heyward: “I mean, it could or couldn’t [be the end for this group together]. This game is a funny game. It is the business on one side, and you’ve just got to see who makes moves, who doesn’t …. I know my mindset every year has always been to go out, try to make the postseason and try to become world champs. I think there is a lot of respect for what it takes to be a champion in this clubhouse.”
