The Chicago Cubs saw their title defense come up short this year and have made some surprising changes to their coaching staff
Not content with just making the National League Championship Series, the Cubs decided on Thursday that they needed to clean house on their coaching staff. 2018 will see Chicago have a new third base coach, hitting coach and maybe most surprisingly a new pitching coach.
A good third base coach is a guy fans never really notice. They only notice him when he sends the runner home when he clearly shouldn’t. It’s easy for a third base coach to be in the crosshairs of angry fans but the actual change is fairly minimal. That’s certainly no offense meant to new coach Brian Butterfield, who was brought in from the Boston Red Sox to fulfill the same position.
Also being brought in from the Red Sox organization is hitting coach Chili Davis. While Davis is regarded as a good coach, the Cubs finished fourth in the majors in runs in 2017. They also finished top 10 in home runs though they were mid-pack in team batting average.
Davis should provide a new voice to the offense and possibly even be able to spark some of the players that didn’t hit well. If Davis can unlock players like Jason Heyward, Addison Russell, and Javier Baez, the Cubs could have an unstoppable offense.
Chris Bosio being let go is the most surprising on the surface. If you look at the stats, he certainly didn’t deserve it. The pitching staff he was working with is likely not the most talented in the league. This seems like a case of manager Joe Maddon wanting his guy instead of who he had. To wit, the ESPN report suggests that Bosio being let go was simply about personalities.
"The Cubs were last in unintentional walk rate, but Bosio’s dismissal had more to do with behind-the-scenes issues than any performance-based statistic."
The Cubs have decided to go with Jim Hickey, who was the long-time pitching coach of the Tampa Bay Rays and has a history with Maddon.
All in all, the baseball world had to figure there would be changes for the Cubs going into next season. We didn’t have to wait very long to start finding out how Chicago is re-shaping their team for another World Series run.