Five Chicago Cubs doomed to be gone by next season

There are some Chicago Cubs who are doomed to be gone by the 2021 season.

The Chicago Cubs appear to be at the end of the best run in the history of the organization. They have made the playoffs in five of the past six years under Theo Epstein but with their current situation, the window seems to be closing. Theo’s contract is up after 2021 and there is a very low chance that he returns after that. He likes to take on new challenges every ten years and this would be the end of his current run if he sticks to that word.

The smart thing for the Cubs to do here would be to hand the franchise over to Jed Hoyer and let him rebuild it. There are too many unknowns with their current roster because of performance issues that it might just be time to rebuild. There are so many bad contracts that were given out over the past few years as well so that hasn’t made it easy either.

This past season saw them win the National League Central Division but they were reeling at the end. It had the feel of a team that would have blown the division lead to either the St. Louis Cardinals or Cincinnati Reds had there been 162 games. Their start players all had awful years at awful times because most of them are looking to get paid beyond the 2021 season. It is going to force the Cubs to make some tough decisions this winter.

If the Cubs ever want to be competitive again in the playoffs, they need to do it right. That might mean making some unpopular decisions along the way. These five players feel doomed to be gone by the time the 2021 season rolls around: