Chicago Cubs: They wanted Chili, but are now changing their order

The Chicago Cubs fired John Mallee out of a desire to bring in Chili Davis. After one year, their tastes have changed and they’re making another change.

Man, this has been a weird couple of days here in mid-October. And the worst part? The Chicago Cubs aren’t even playing in the postseason. First, we had the report from David Kaplan regarding Kris Bryant supposedly turning down a $200 million extension in the past ‘several’ months.

Then, Sahadev Sharma and The Athletic kind of took Kaplan to task (as did all of Cubs Twitter) over that ‘several’ language. The ESPN 1000 host backpedaled, trying to justify his comments, but came out for the worse at the end of it all. And, now, in a very matter-of-fact, non-rumor, Chicago fired hitting coach Chili Davis after just one season.

But let’s be honest. The writing was on the wall. Have you ever seen Harry Potter and the Chamber of  Secrets? Blood. On the walls. That’s just about how ‘in-your-face’ all signs related to Chili Davis’ imminent departure have been since season’s end.

"“Something happened to our offense in the second half,” Epstein said last week in his end-of-season press conference. “We stopped walking, we stopped hitting home runs, we stopped hitting the ball in the air, and we stopped being productive. Not being able to get to two runs that many times in the second half is really unacceptable.”"

Unacceptable. There’s no other word more perfectly suited to describe the Cubs’ offensive performance in the second half. When all the chips were on the table, the bats faltered in tremendous fashion, costing the team a division title and, ultimately, the shot at a fourth-straight NLDS appearance.