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Chicago Cubs: Deadline approach will be shaped by how they start
The Cubs have to get off to a fast start in 2020 to determine how the front office will handle the trade deadline.
It is important to start fast during any Major League Baseball season, especially the Chicago Cubs. It sets the tone for how the rest of the year is going to go. It’s very rare for a team to start the season off poorly and turn it around to end the season in the playoffs.
We saw it happen last season with the Washington Nationals as they started the year as one of the worst teams in all of baseball and turned it around to become World Champions. That does not happen too often.
Just look back to the Cubs memorable 2016 season and how it started for them. Through the first 40 games of 2016, they had a record of 29-11, the best in the majors at the time. They kept that moment rolling to a World Series Championship.
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Now let’s look back at the 2019 season as they struggled to start the season. The Cubs started the season off just 3-8 and things were not looking good. They started to turn it around during the middle months of the season, but it ended up not being enough as they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
Since 2016 the Cubs have been in a position at the trade deadline to be buyers. To have the front office go out and try to find different guys that would help their ballclub make a run into October. Aroldis Chapman, Jose Quintana, Nicholas Castellanos are some of the big names the Cubs have added over the last few seasons to try and make a deep October run.
The Cubs will have added pressure in this sprint of a 60 game season to have a fast start. In a typical 162 game, season teams have around four months before the trade deadline to decide what to do with their team at the deadline. If they want to be buyers or sellers. Teams will not have that luxury this season as the trade deadline is August 31st.
So, general managers will have to make quick decisions on what they believe their team is if one or two pieces can make a difference for them down the stretch run. Because teams that are in a spot to buy will do everything they can to get a guy if they believe he can be the guy to help them win.
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The Cubs will have to start fast this season and make the decision easy for Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer to be buyers at the deadline. Because if they don’t start quickly and are in a hole come with a deadline, some guys like Kris Bryant might be on the move out of Chicago.