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.

Chicago Cubs: One-and-done for Davis

So, why did Epstein not warrant Davis a second year to see if the work he put in during his inaugural season paid off? Apparently, because of what he heard from the players themselves in their end-of-year exit interviews.

Almost unanimously, Cubs players performed worse than in 2017. The only exceptions to that rule? Ben Zobrist, who put up some of the best numbers of his career at age 37 and Javier Baez, who took a National League MVP race down to the wire in a breakout campaign in which he set career-highs in virtually every offensive category.

But is Davis the reason for these other regressions?

Chicago Cubs: Is Chili to blame for all these struggles?

Willson Contreras set a new career-high in games caught (and played) – and looked gassed by the All-Star Break. His offense followed the same trajectory as the rest of the team, hitting just .200 with a .294 slugging percentage in the second half.

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Kris Bryant burst out of the gates at a torrid rate before he was hit in the face by a pitch and later tweaked a shoulder – an injury that lingered the rest of the year. As Sahadev Sharma pointed out on Thursday, the slugger batted .311/.422/.595 in the first 38 games of the season – MVP-caliber numbers.

After injuring his shoulder trying to beat out a ball, his numbers plummeted (.249/.339/.378). Late in the season, even after he returned, he clearly wasn’t the same guy. Pitchers were pumping low-90s heat past him like it was 98 or 99. Regardless of the official story, Bryant wasn’t himself.

Anthony Rizzo proved to be the antithesis of the offense. Instead of starting hot and going cold, he did the opposite, starting out with one of the worst offensive stretches of his career before catching fire and, once again, eclipsing 100 RBI on the final day of the season. But, all told, the team’s bats faded – no, that’s not the word. They completely vanished down the stretch, as they watched Milwaukee overcome them for the NL Central crown.