Chicago Cubs: David Ross looks like he could take over a selling team

Tides have changed forcing the Chicago Cubs front office to shake things up heading into 2020. What does this mean leading into next year’s trade deadline?

The weather outside may be frightful but there’s nothing worse than getting through the week without live baseball. Right now, a good many Chicago Cubs fans are celebrating the release of infielder Addison Russell, who was non-tendered before Monday’s deadline.

Surely the decision to cut ties with Russell was at the top of everyone’s wish list. Moving forward, it has been made obvious that Chicago may be wanting to shake things up even more following the departure of Joe Maddon.

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Moving on from Maddon, a likely future Hall of Famer, and bringing in first-year manager and 2016 World Series champion, David Ross, has opened a new chapter for the franchise

Winter Meetings will soon be underway and yet again, division foes have made waves of their own early on.

Granted they’re nowhere near what St. Louis did by landing Paul Goldschmidt last year; but they’re still moves that will impact these team’s futures. With Cincinnati adding Mike Moustakas, the Reds are determined to stay clear of the bottom of the pack.

Last season, the Cubs dropped 11 of their 19 games to Cincinnati – their worst record against N.L. Central opponents.

So, let’s say Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee continue to improve their rosters while our beloved team (along with Pittsburgh) focuses more on the long-term future.

Selling high in 2020

If by chance, this organization doesn’t seem to be riding a postseason wave, there’s a strong possibility that the front office would be willing to unload just about any talent. Unless they’ve somehow managed to convince Javier Baez to agree to a long-term contract, he would remain the lone untouchable.

That may be a long shot considering the kind of money that will be floating around for guys such as Baez, Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor, etc. Either way, the days of being trade deadline buyers may come to a halt in the near future.

Pending any big offseason trades, names such as Albert Almora Jr., Kyle Schwarber, Jason Heyward, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo, and even Jon Lester should be made available.

A stock of valuable talent that has proven to have what it takes to get the job done. The haul Theo and Jed could reel in for either one of these names listed above would drastically help rebuild a depleted farm system.

Consider it another pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that featured multiple postseason appearances and a World Series win. The wheel is and will always continue to turn despite the foundation of this team changing.

Change happens and will happen quite often as time goes on.

With that said, don’t cringe too hard; this is a business and at times, the business can be ugly whenever money is involved. Unfortunately, not everyone is guaranteed to stay with the organization for the majority or their entire playing career.

Though expectations may remain high, we’ll wait and see what this once mighty foundation will look like come the end of July next year.