For Chicago Cubs, time to focus on here and now, not future

The Chicago Cubs are sacrificing a bit of their future for the sake of winning in the present. And that’s exactly what they built for in the first place.

I’m not a Chicago Cubs fan by nature, but I’m familiar enough with the “there’s always next year” mentality.

During the course of their 108-year championship drought, how many times after the end of a season, good or bad, that ended without a World Series title did Cubs fans simply throw up their hands and wait for the next opening day? How many years of futility, bad contracts and a lack of real hope for the future did Cubs fans endure before the tide finally turned?

It took Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer rebuilding the entire roster and farm system over several grueling years to get the Cubs back to winning. And finally, led by young stars like Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber and key acquisitions like Jon Lester, the Cubs won a World Series once again.

So now that the Cubs have begun trading away their top prospects for veteran players Kenny Williams-style, fans are wondering what happened to the plan. Having a pipeline of top talent to the majors was how they got here. Is giving up Eloy Jimenez and Jeimer Candelario worth a little short-term glory? What changed?

Built to Last

On one hand, the Cubs have built so well from their own stores that it’s almost natural for Cubs fans to want it to be like this all the time.

It’s exciting to stockpile loads of top talent and watch them grow into stars. Look at what Bryant has become in such a short time. Check out the burgeoning star that Willson Contreras is turning into. And look at what trading for prospects like Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell has done for the North Siders. For teams like the Chicago White Sox, who are currently following this model, one can only dream that rebuild turns out half as well.

That said, the rebuild is over. It’s arguably been over for the last two years. And their core players aren’t going anywhere.

Rizzo’s under contract until 2021 if the club wants to keep him; at this point, why wouldn’t they? Bryant is arbitration-eligible next year and is certain to get massively paid to stay in Chicago for the next decade. How’s Candelario supposed to get playing time when that’s your everyday third baseman? Contreras is under team control until 2019. Russell, Javier Baez and Schwarber are arbitration-eligible through 2021. Kyle Hendricks won’t hit the free agent market until 2021. Ian Happ‘s under control for the foreseeable future.

And among your high-profile free agent signings? The Cubs have both Lester and Jason Heyward inked through 2020. Heck, because of the team-friendliness of his original contract, the Cubs even have control of Jose Quintana through 2020 now.

You get the gist: this Cubs team is no longer rebuilding. They have arrived.

No More “Next Year”

And if you’re a Chicago Cubs fans, this should be the fun part for you.

No more suffering through year after year of hoping your team will be good enough to just make the playoffs. No more having to ditch your optimism at the drop of a hat and look forward to the future. The vision is unfolding right now. The Cubs have made themselves yearly World Series contenders right now.

And that makes looking into the future far less necessary than it was a few years ago when Epstein and Hoyer overhaul this organization.

Sure, the Cubs must continue to develop young prospects that could help them whether they’re contending or not.

While Bryant and Rizzo might stay Cubs for life, not everyone else can say the same. Maybe Russell or Baez gets traded next year, or an outfield spot opens up. That’s precisely what guys like Ian Happ or Albert Almora, who haven’t gotten to prove themselves yet as everyday players, are for.

But more than that, dealing prospects for proven major league contributors are part of how winning teams stay in the hunt year after year. How else were the Cubs supposed to grab Quintana, someone who addressed a desperate starting rotation need, from the White Sox? How else can you get a badly needed lefty bullpen arm like Justin Wilson or an experienced backup catcher like Alex Avila to take some wear off Contreras’ body for your playoff run? Sometimes, you have to give to get.

One thing worth noting: Justin Wilson not FA until after 2018. Could very easily close -- and not cost a ton in arbitration. Big for Cubs.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2017

And the Cubs have put themselves in a position where that’s precisely what they should do. Because if any organization knows that World Series appearances don’t grow on trees, it’s the Cubs. So they’re maximizing their opportunities to win as much as they can by using the assets at their disposal.

Next: How the Chicago Cubs will use Alex Avila

It’s not like what White Sox fans have seen Kenny Williams do: grasp at aging free agents and trading the farm system bare for a championship window that didn’t really exist. This is what the Chicago Cubs have built for this whole time: to win now and not wait for the future. They got to the top, and now they’re trying to stay there.

Feels weird to be here, doesn’t it, Cubs fans?

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