NEWSLETTER
With last night’s loss, the Cubs can officially do no better than 5-5 on this West Coast trip (if they sweep the Giants, which, whatever … let’s call that ‘doubtful’).
Given the hole they’d dug for themselves in the run up to this relatively pivotal trip, I said from the start that a 5-5 outcome – normally OK – would be a failure. Thus, this trip will have been not what the Cubs needed to turn things around, and we can no longer say things like “it’s early” and “the division is bad” and “let’s just give it a few more weeks.” The Cubs are 10 games under .500, are within a game of the worst record in the NL, and are 7.5 games out in the Central, while trailing three teams.
So, yeah, it’s gonna be selling season again for the Cubs.
It’s June 9, and I don’t see a realistic way around it now. It’s sad that this is how it goes, especially after the meh 2022 and the grand sell-off of 2021 and the fake 2020 and the dramatically underachieving 2019 and the rapid swoon of 2018. It’s been a very bad five years for Cubs fans who care about seeing a competitive big league team.
Speaking of which.
While I don’t think anyone was saying the Cubs definitely WOULD be competitive this season, many of us were saying (1) the Cubs COULD be competitive this season, and (2) the Cubs were built in AN ATTEMPT to be competitive this season. So that’s why you can say this year is a failure, even if you would’ve ballparked only a 20% chance at a playoff spot.
Moreover, it’s not just that the Cubs now figure to be winding up in that 80% chunk, it’s that they look particularly BAD in doing so. As Michael rightly ranted yesterday, the Cubs are WASTING a terrible year in the NL Central, and look like one of the dregs of the group in the process. That is its own separate failure!
I don’t care what you thought this team would be going into this season. This has been a very bad outcome, not a preordained one.
And it’s going to lead to another July all about which trade pieces can be flipped for which prospects. Sometimes that’s fun. I’m sure as hell not looking forward to it today, though.
