Chicago Cubs: Theo Epstein is to blame for team’s offensive struggles
By Ryan Sikes
Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein did little to improve the roster in the offseason and it is blowing up in his face.
Despite being just a half game out of first place entering Saturday, the Chicago Cubs offense is still broken. If you need any references, just look at this last nine-game roadtrip in which the team went 3-6 and managed just 1 hit in the finale against the Cardinals. The Cubs haven’t won a road series since May and that’s not going to earn them a playoff spot if this continues.
Look back to the end of the 2018 season and the Cubs were in a similar situation. Their offense went flat with 5-game division lead only to watch it slip away in the final month of the regular season and were forced to play game 163 to settle the National League Central division. The Milwaukee Brewers won that game, leaving the Cubs to host the Colorado Rockies in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
The Cubs scratched across just 1 run in what ended up being a 2-1 Rockies victory in 13 innings and Theo Epstein stated after the season that the “offense broke somewhere along the lines”. The only move to improve the offense this past offseason was the signing of Daniel Descalso who has hit just 0.181 (49 wRC+) in 73 games for the team.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well then, Theo Epstein must be insane because this Cubs offense cannot do anything on the road this season. They look like the same team that scored 1 or fewer runs a league-high 40 times last season, tied with the worst team in baseball in the Baltimore Orioles.
They were aggressive at the deadline and traded for Tony Kemp and Nick Castellanos but it’s far too early to determine if that has helped. Epstein stated in the offseason that production was going to start getting playing time over talent and only recently has he held up to that.
Certainly, it isn’t all on Theo’s shoulders as the players and Joe Maddon have to be held accountable as well. Maddon, 65, is in the final year of his contract with the team and it’s looking more and more like he won’t be back next season, which sounds crazy considering the success of this team over his first four seasons.
The Cubs ended the World Series drought in 2016 under Maddon, but expectations for this group are sky-high right now and they are underperforming in a big way. As previously noted, they enter Saturday just half a game back of the Cardinals but they should honestly be several games ahead in the division if the offense could have done more in certain games.
Just last weekend, the Cubs led heading into the bottom of the 8th inning against the Brewers and they ended up losing both games. The offense has been extremely reliant on the long ball this season and when they aren’t hitting them, they usually have a hard time scoring. The last time the Cubs won a game without hitting a home run was way back on July 6.
Next. Brailyn Marquez putting up monster season in Single-A. dark
If the Cubs miss the playoffs (honestly if they don’t win the division), I would expect major changes this offseason and we could end up seeing a few core players traded to shake up this roster. Something needs to change.