AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

The Rundown: Cubs Eliminated, Counsell Provides Organizational Advice, White Sox Tie Historical Record for Losses

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterSeptember 23, 2024

“Time isn’t holding up, time isn’t after us. Same as it ever was…same as it ever was.” – Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime

We have entered the final week of the 2024 regular season and the Cubs have been officially eliminated, making the window of sustained success promised a decade ago by Chicago’s front office seem like folly today. Chicago’s North Side Baseballers are nine games behind the Brewers but it may as well be 50. Milwaukee is going to the playoffs for the fourth time in six years, while the Cubs are on the outside looking in for the fourth consecutive season. Manager Craig Counsell is frustrated to the point where he’s tossing word salads like he’s running for president. Bang the drum slowly on another disappointing season.

“There’s a big gap,” Counsell said Thursday. “They’re ahead of us by a lot. [The Brewers] are a talented team. On and off the field, that’s a talented team. There’s a big gap, and we got room to make up. There’s no question about it. Frankly, that makes it daunting.

“Yeah, I mean, we got to get better, man. The team we’re chasing is 10 games ahead of us. We’ve got to get better. And we should be trying to build 90-win teams here. That’s like what you have to do, that’s a playoff standard. That’s what you got to get to, to be safely in the playoffs, safely in the tournament. Right? So from that perspective, [we’ve] got a ways to go.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Counsell issued a challenge to Jed Hoyer, whose annual goal is to be just a bit better than the rest of Chicago’s NL Central brethren. The Brewers will begin this final week of baseball with 89 wins and an outside chance to be the No. 2 seed, though they’ll need a lot of help from the Cubs in Philadelphia. So Counsell is right in saying that 90 wins has to be the standard at the very least.

Hoyer has some work to do but he’s built a team that leaves him relatively handcuffed this winter. The first order of business is Cody Bellinger, who I wholeheartedly believe will return to Chicago for another season. If he stays, Hoyer will have to make several hard decisions this winter to improve a team that is 163-155 (.513) in the Dansby Swanson era.

I’ve been hard on Hoyer and I still don’t believe he’s the right man to right the ship, mostly because of the current makeup of his roster. Bellinger has questionable value while Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki have no-trade clauses. Hoyer probably won’t trade Swanson or any of his top prospects. I suppose the president of baseball operations could seek to trade Bellinger if he opts in, but that might send mixed messages to pending free agents interested in signing with the Cubs.

Still, the difference between Milwaukee and Chicago — at least on paper — isn’t 8-10 games. It’s more a matter of one team overachieving while the other is consistently and unpleasantly passive. Juan Soto isn’t coming to the Cubs and neither is Corbin Burnes, so the front office needs to have a creative offseason. Hoyer’s objectives should be as follows:

  1. A power-hitting third baseman.
  2. Bench depth.
  3. A shutdown reliever or two.
  4. Rōki Sasaki.

The Cubs haven’t won a playoff game since 2017, but there is a bright side, and it’s the team’s pipeline of prospects. They also have the promise of rookies Shōta Imanaga, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Miguel Amaya, Michael Busch, Ben Brown, and Porter Hodge. Just color me skeptical that relying on that influx of potential is Hoyer’s best option. Those hard decisions Chicago’s front office will have to make may mean trading some of that youth for productive veterans.

Cubs News & Notes

Odds & Sods

I mentioned this about a month ago, and it’s going to be fun to see if the White Sox break more than one record this season.

Ball Four

I watched a replay over the weekend of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and I’ve concluded that the Cubs won because they didn’t know they had to be that good. They were young, had an inflated swagger of sorts, and just had fun knocking the hell out of their opponents. They lost that exuberant enthusiasm when the Dodgers kicked their asses in the 2017 NLCS and never got it back.

In retrospect, that team aged badly very quickly and it happened once those huge expectations of being baseball’s next dynasty were placed on their shoulders. Losing Dave Martinez to the Nationals and Dexter Fowler to the Cardinals didn’t help either. As Joe Maddon‘s bench coach, Martinez could have provided the veteran leadership the Cubs lost when David Ross retired.

This year’s Brewers remind me of the 2016 Cubs because of those same intangibles. Milwaukee, however, isn’t built for sustained success because payroll limitations will result in the loss of a couple of key players, namely Willy Adames and Frankie Montas. Freddy Peralta and Devin Williams will be entering their final arbitration years and could be traded because a host of players are entering their first years of eligibility, including stud catcher William Contreras. Further, Rhys Hoskins will most assuredly exercise his $18 million option and Christian Yelich isn’t getting younger or cheaper. A money crunch is therefore coming to Milwaukee.

Hoyer needs to build a team that will be an annual playoff contender. The Reds and Pirates are the next teams on the come in that division, and frankly speaking, the Cubs shouldn’t be looking up at the asses of any of the other NL Central teams.

Central Intelligence

How About That!

The White Sox had a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the 8th inning on Sunday, and then history struck. They’ve tied the 1962 Mets for most losses in a single post-1900 season with 120.

WNBA star Caitlin Clark may have a future as an MLB broadcaster, but she’s going to need some media training.

I can’t stop watching “The Ohtani Game.” On Thursday, Shohei Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three home runs, five extra-base hits, two stolen bases, and 10 RBI in Miami to get to 51 home runs and 51 stolen bases. Dear Lord. He’s at 53-53 as of today.

The Angels won’t make the playoffs, which means the Mike Trout trade rumors are heating up once again. One exec said the ballclub would have to eat more than half of his remaining contract to move him. Trout is signed through 2030 and the Angels still owe him $222.7 million.

The Tigers are holding on to a Wild Card seed and I can’t think of anything more exciting than seeing every AL Central team playing meaningful baseball games at the end of September. The Tigers, Royals, and Twins are separated by one game for two of the final three Wild Card slots while the Guardians battle the Yankees for the top seed. The White Sox games are meaningful for an entirely different reason, though.

The Mariners are also in the thick of the Wild Card race but suffered a devastating loss on Sunday. Seattle blew a five-run lead in a 6-5 walk-off loss to the Rangers.

A weekend sweep over the Blue Jays kept Tampa Bay’s slim playoff hopes alive. The Rays are four games back with six remaining.

Who Pfaadted?

Here are my playoff predictions, with a profuse apology to Brandon Pfaadt:

  • NL: The Brewers and Diamondbacks will win their Wild Card tilts. One of those teams will knock off the Dodgers, and the Phillies will also advance to the NLCS. So give me the Brewers and Phillies playing for the NL championship with the Brewers advancing to the World Series.
  • AL: There is no telling who will get the three Wild Card berths so, for now, give me the Orioles and Yankees playing in the ALCS with Baltimore advancing.
  • World Series: Orioles over the Brewers in seven games.

Extra Innings

Sparse crowd at Wrigley Field yesterday but Busch was still electric. I’d love to see a 40-home run season or two in this kid’s future.

Salad Spinning Part II

“We have to push each other in these situations. That inevitably is going to make for hard decisions. Because it’s hard. The thing we want to do is hard. That’s going to require hard decisions. But the things worth doing are hard. That’s where we got to get to. It’s going to be difficult. We’re not there.” – Counsell

They Said It

  • “It felt like when you’re in the National League Central [when Taillon was with the Pirates], we were kind of the little guys coming in here and they were playing bully ball against us a little bit. Star power, it was scary to come to Wrigley and play. You didn’t want to catch ’em on a day they were swinging it hot. Going forward, that should be our expectation. Teams shouldn’t want to come in here and play the Cubs. Wrigley shouldn’t be a fun road trip. Chicago shouldn’t be a fun road trip for other teams. They should come in here and say like, ‘We’re going to get worked for three days.'” – Jameson Taillon
  • “I love competing, and I want to be that consistent force again for my teammates. That’s what I pride myself on. [I] wasn’t able to do that this year for the majority of the year. So no matter what the role is, just whenever I have the ball in my hand, be that consistent guy for my teammates.” – Hendricks

Monday Walk-Up Song

Fittingly…

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterSeptember 23, 2024
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