Chicago Cubs: Fans should blame the players, not Joe Maddon

The Chicago Cubs ended their season on a low note, losing to both the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies but blaming Joe Maddon’s this time around is wrong.

In past seasons, the Chicago Cubs often won games in spite of Joe Maddon’s decision-making. Whenever the Cubs lost, the first one to get blamed was Maddon, rather than the players.

Yet, throughout the month of September, leading into their season-ending loss against the Colorado Rockies, the Cubs’ offense was a no-show. The lineup could not manufacture runs consistently, putting an extreme burden on the pitchers to will the Cubs to victory. That’s why the Cubs couldn’t fend off the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League Central title. That’s why they’re now going home, instead of living to fight another postseason day.

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The Cubs’ season was truly a roller-coaster ride, for all the wrong reasons. Injuries and underwhelming performances from big names such as Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant, Brandon Morrow, Pedro Strop, Ian Happ, and Addison Russell immediately come to mind. Yet, for a majority of the season, the Cubs were able to stay in first place due in large part to Javier Baez becoming a bona fide all-star.

Baez’s play often covered up weaknesses that quickly emerged within this team. Unfortunately, one player can only do so much, and when your best player struggles, others around him have to step up. Anthony Rizzo certainly did his part throughout the second half of the season. So did Cole Hamels, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Ben Zobrist, and even Daniel Murphy to some degree during the final month of the season.

In order to win a World Series though, it takes a collective team effort to get through the tough times. But players who have been with the organization for some time now, such as Schwarber, Willson Contreras, Russell, and Happ, failed to improve their play from prior seasons.

It’s bad enough when injuries play a major role in dictating how a season plays out. But overall, the inconsistent play from the Cubs as a whole is what led to their demise this season. Just as it did in 2017.

For years now, the Cubs’ offense has proven to be streaky at best. As much as fans want to blame Maddon’s lineup juggling for the struggles offensively, the reality is that Baez was the only Cub hitter that showed remarkable improvement across the board this season. His batting average, home run total, and runs batted in were all career-highs in 2018. No other Cub hitter improved significantly this season, despite having another year of big-league experience.

While the Cubs’ hitters deserve plenty of blame for regressing, let’s not forget about the pitchers as well. Darvish was a complete disaster on the mound — when healthy.

Jon Lester was up and down all season long, issuing way too many free passes to opposing batters. Jose Quintana pitched well down the stretch, but it took him four months to finally remember that he’s a good pitcher.

Kyle Hendricks did what he always does: struggled to find his footing in the first half, only to pitch like Greg Maddux following the all-star break. Hamels was exceptional as a Cub, so he deserved a free pass on any criticism. Chatwood pitched so bad this season that no one knew he was still with the team following the all-star break.

The bullpen was often decimated through injuries, yet relievers such as Brandon Kintzler and Carl Edwards pitched poorly down the stretch. Too often, the Cubs relied on young relievers to bail them out who just weren’t ready yet for the big stage.

The Cubs failure to play up to expectations is not Maddon’s fault. While he can be his own worst enemy at times, he doesn’t determine whether a player such as Willson Contreras hits just .249 on the season. That hinges on the player, not the coach.

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Whether you’re a fan of Maddon or not, it’s time the players to be held accountable for the Cubs’ struggles. The manager gets all the scrutiny when things aren’t going well, and while that understandable in some instances, it shouldn’t be this time around. A manager can’t go up to bat with runners in scoring position after all.

Maybe it’s time for Theo Epstein to realize that in order for the Cubs to win another World Series, the band simply needs to break up. Sending out the same cast of players year after year now just isn’t working. Something has to change soon, and changing managers isn’t going to make much difference when the players themselves continually refuse to make adjustments to their game for the better.

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