Chicago Cubs: Pathetic since winning 2016 World Series
The Chicago Cubs have been pretty awful since winning the World Series in 2016.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016 and it was the greatest moment in the history of the franchise. It was finally the end of the laughable 108-year drought that had them known as the “lovable losers” for so long. Well, ever since then, things haven’t been that good on the North Side. They have been in the playoffs every year since then except for one but something didn’t feel right in any of those years.
This was a team that had so much talent lined up for the long haul. It wasn’t a question of if they’d win the World Series but how many will they win? Well, the answer is looking more and more like just the one. They have already fired the coach that was there when the won it all and now some of the key players might start t depart.
When you think of the Cubs of this era, the three-headed monster comes to ming. That would be the trio of Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Baez. All three of them are locks to be in the MVP conversation each year but have been brutal in the postseason. Since winning the World Series in 2016, they are a combined 19 for 141 with 51 strikeouts. This is a group that is supposed to lead their team and not put up pathetic numbers like that.
You just can’t get swept in a short series to the Miami Marlins if you’re the Cubs. The Marlins deserved to be in because they battled but they probably would have finished under .500 in a 162 game season. They had a -41 run differential which was one of the worst in the National League. The Cubs should have truly destroyed them.
Instead, they wasted two very good outings from Kyle Hendricks and Yu Darvish. Each of them did very well but the offense scored a total of one run in the two games combined. For a roster that looks so good on paper, they surely were awful in this series. It wasn’t even really just this series either because it was something that was going on all year long. They need to address that in the offseason otherwise, it is going to be more of the same next year.
Hot. Could the Blackhawks make a draft-day trade?. light
If this Cubs team wants to rebuild then that might be a good idea. If they want to take one more stab at it with this group, nobody would blame them for that either. One thing that is probably true is that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are probably even less likely to overpay some of their expiring contracts after what they saw from this year. There is no doubt that some difficult decisions are going to follow this loss because they have been pathetic by their standards since 2016.