Who Will Be The Scapegoat?

If Tom Ricketts had his choice, there is a good chance that Ryne Sandberg would be sitting in the Cubs  clubhouse as the manager and not Mike Quade. When the Cubs were debating between Sandberg and Quade in the off-season, indications were that Ricketts supported Sandberg and general manager Jim Hendry supported Quade. Though, Ricketts gave Hendry full control in the managerial search. Which is why Quade is the current manager of the Cubs, and Sandberg is managing with the Phillies organization. But the decision to give Quade the job may ultimately be the reason Hendry is fired this off-season.

If you are keeping count at home, yesterday marked the third straight season  that Hendry had to give a vote of confidence to his manager. As the old adage goes fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Well this is the third time that Hendry has tried to fool us. Hendry went all in on Quade due in large part to how successful Quade and the Cubs were after Lou Piniella announced his retirement last season. Goods news for Hendry is that the Cubs are now playing meaningless games, so may be Quade can emulate the success he had at the end of last season.

Ricketts will have to answer for another disappointing by making some sort of change in the front office. But Hendry has convinced Ricketts before that he is not problem, what’s to say he can not do it again. The way the Cubs gave Quade a two year contract that is not too expensive, it would seem that the Cubs already set Quade up to be the scapegoat if things went wrong this season. Things have gone wrong this season, and you can bet that there will be a scapegoat. The two candidates to be the fall guy are either Quade or Hendry. But realistically, there is a good chance that both are gone from their current positions come next season.

I find it really hard to believe that Hendry will be back next season as the Cubs general manager. Meaning that the Cubs will likely bring in their next general manager from outside of the organizations. The early candidates that have been mentioned are Billy Beane, Andrew Friedman, Ned Colletti, and Brian Cashman. Regardless of who the next general manager is, there is a good chance that they would want to bring their own guys with them. Unless they make the same mistake that Hendry made by putting faith into a meaningless season, Quade will not be back next season as the Cubs manager.

So when the time comes for Ricketts to determine a scapegoat for the season, he more than likely will pick Hendry. But that will also lead to Quade probably losing his job as well. Even though Quade should not be at fault for the Cubs season, a fresh start–with a new general manager and his handpicked manager–is the best scenario for the Cubs going forward.