While the Chicago Cubs dismantled much of their core last season, they expected to be a bit better in 2022. That has not happened.
After trading Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Báez, Craig Kimbrel, and Joc Pederson (among others) at the trade deadline last year, the Chicago Cubs expected to be a little bit better this season.
They selected Wade Miley off of waivers from Cincinnati after they ditched him in a salary dump. They also signed Marcus Stroman to a two-year, $50 million deal plus a player option for a third year for at least $21 million but incentives could take it up to $25 million. They signed relievers Jesse Chavez, Chris Martin, Daniel Norris, Mychal Givens, Robert Gsellman, and David Robertson, catcher Yan Gomes, infielder Andrelton Simmons, and outfielder Seiya Suzuki to a five-year deal for $85 million.
Stroman and Suzuki were the only big moves but all of those moves were a sign that the Cubs didn’t plan on rolling over for the 2022 season.
But things have gone awry as they are 34-54 and on pace for a 63-99 record.
There is definitely plenty of blame to go around. Some would say that a lot of the blame should be on the shoulders of Cubs President Jed Hoyer. He definitely should shoulder some of the blame but he is far from the only one.
3 scapegoats for the Chicago Cubs 2022 season
Manager David Ross
Of the three scapegoats on this list, David Ross shoulders the lowest amount of blame. He wasn’t given a good deck of cards but some of the ways that he has played them is not great.
Case in point: Jason Heyward.
Jason Heyward has missed half of the season due to multiple injured list stints. In fact, he is currently on the IL with a knee injury and he last played in the majors on June 24. He returned from his first IL stint on June 1 and from June 1 through June 24, he played in 21 games and started 18 games.
In that span, he hit .200/.268/.292.
Heyward is not an MLB player anymore but his eight-year contract runs through next season.
When he returns, will Heyward get consistent playing time as he did before? He shouldn’t. Heyward, at best, should be on the bench.
Cubs GM Carter Hawkins
This was Carter Hawkins’ first offseason on the job as the GM of the Chicago Cubs and he had to deal with a lockout when he literally could not make any signings or trades.
But when the lockout ended in early March, Hawkins needed to sign more pitching.
Through the club’s first 88 games, they have actually been league average offensively (100 OPS+ among non-pitchers, which is 15th in baseball). Their pitchers, though, have been the exact opposite.
Their starting pitchers have an ERA of 4.85, which is 26th in the sport. He signed the aforementioned Marcus Stroman right before the lockout but he has been a disappointment and injured as well. He has a 4.91 ERA in 10 starts.
Their relievers have an ERA of 4.45, which is also 26th in the sport.
With 12 teams making the playoffs this year, they still could use some offensive upgrades but it is the pitching that has let the time down the most.
Shortly after Opening Day, he also traded reliever Jesse Chavez to Atlanta for Sean Newcomb. Newcomb was awful in the majors for the Cubs and they DFA’d him shortly thereafter. He hasn’t pitched well in Triple-A either.
Meanwhile, Chavez has been one of Atlanta’s best relievers. With them this year, he has a 2.41 ERA. The Cubs signed him to a modest one-year, $700,000 deal and got three appearances out of him and a pitcher that has a 5.54 ERA in Triple-A and a 16.62 ERA with the Cubs in the majors.
Cubs owner Tom Ricketts
The simple fact of the matter is that if the Ricketts family (mainly Tom Ricketts) didn’t sell off most of their top players last year, they wouldn’t be an unmitigated disaster this year.
The Cubs have dropped their payroll from $214 million in 2019 (the last non-pandemic impacted season before 2022) to $149 million this year. When you drop your payroll 30 percent, you aren’t going to win as many games. It’s as simple as that.
Sure enough, the team’s total amount of wins is on pace to drop by about 25 percent so, as they say, you get what you pay for.
Their four highest paid players (Heyward, Stroman, Kyle Hendricks, and Miley) are combining to make $71 million, or just under half of the team’s entire payroll. They have combined to have 1.1 rWAR on the season.
That formula is not exactly a recipe for winning.
Instead, Ricketts is crying poor … while he was trying to buy Chelsea FC earlier this year for an estimated $4 billion.
Ricketts isn’t exactly living paycheck to paycheck but he is running the Cubs like he is. Until he forks over some cash and the front office decides to go all in on a rebuild or go all in to be a playoff team next year, the Cubs will be doing what they have done for most of their history: be stuck in a quagmire of mediocrity.