Chicago Cubs: A shortened regular season may benefit them
While major league baseball remains in limbo as for when their season will start, it’s fair to assess how a possible shortened season could actually benefit the Chicago Cubs.
With the entire sports world turned upside down for who knows how long, no one knows when or even if there will be competitive baseball being played again in 2020. With that said, if we are fortunate enough to get sports back this year, there’s a strong possibility that many sports will have to shorten up their seasons, given all the time that’s already been missed. Here’s how the Chicago Cubs could greatly benefit from this action taking place.
For starters, the Cubs’ central core of players remains intact. Theo Epstein and company hardly made any roster moves this offseason, and while this has led to some criticism among disgruntled fans who wanted to see big changes taking place, refusing to tear down the roster gives the Cubs a continuity advantage over their division rivals: the Saint Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cincinnati Reds.
Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, and Willson Contreras, among a bunch of others have played together since their 2016 World Series run. The team’s familiarity playing together successfully over the years can help manager David Ross and company maneuver around a shortened season’s disadvantages: number one being rusty play from the long delay.
Don’t underestimate team chemistry, even when it comes to playing baseball. Other teams have new players on their rosters who haven’t even gotten the chance to play one inning together this spring. Thus, those teams will likely experience more growing pains than the Cubs, especially if there are fewer games being played.
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In addition, a shortened season can benefit the Cubs by easing the pressure of first-year manager, David Ross. While Epstein has emphasized the organization being in a “win now” mode, a shortened season throws every projection out of sorts, with Epstein being aware of this, no doubt.
If by chance the Cubs were to struggle out of the gate in Ross’s first season leading the team, the organization can simply blame the long delay to the start of the season, or a condensed schedule as prime reasons why the Cubs, and possibly other contending teams are playing sluggish. Ross can thus be given a free pass for how his team performs, even if they aren’t playing great baseball early on. Even more important though: the backlash wouldn’t be as immense as it would if the season started on time as normal.
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Finally, a shortened season can benefit the Cubs by keeping more fans engrossed into watching them than ever before. In other sports such as football that play competitively once a week, sports like baseball that play 162-plus games find it harder to draw in fan interest until the playoffs begin. Shortening the regular season will increase a “sense of urgency” to every game played, while making the stakes within division-play even more competitive and appealing to watch.