Cubs left high and dry thanks to confluence of perfect storms

In the midst of what can only be described as, at best, a terribly thrifty past three offseasons, the Cubs are in a bizarre situation (and it’s not really making any fans very happy at all). This organization has been and should be a large market team.

Their pecuniary measures and decisions should follow suit. They’d also been a wildly successful large market team from a competitive and fiscal standpoint before the pandemic hit . Just about to unveil a brand new TV network that was all their own in order to maximize profits coming back to the organization, the Cubs got stuck in the eye of the worst of all places: a perfect storm.

Check that; make it the confluence of about five different storms.

• They didn’t manage their money correctly or efficiently within the 1060 Project.
• Some of their trades and free agent signings didn’t pan out.
• They didn’t trade or stagger the extension of homegrown players when they should have, leaving the team in limbo with five different core position players.
• Marquee had carriage issues and didn’t generate buzz, ad revenue, or interest in a short 60-game season that didn’t start until July.
• And, of course, the whole, you know, pandemic that created biblical losses for everyone.

All that leaves us here in the present, staring down a 2021 season that is fast becoming the epitome of “meh” and has already featured the beginnings of a fire sale where the Cubs have non-tendered Kyle Schwarber, traded Yu Darvish for a few scratch-offs (that seemed to be more 20 million drawing-types rather than the recent billion dollar MegaMillions variety), and failed to resign any of the pitchers who could have given us some veteran depth heading into this already mediocre season.

Chicago Cubs: What are the chances these guys are Cubs in September?

Sure, the Cubs might still be competitive in the NL Central in ’21 given the fact that it’s terrible right now, but they’re going nowhere fast even if they do miraculously make it to the postseason. Chances are, they’ll advertise the blue light specials come July and real contending teams willing to spend money and win ball games will no doubt be coming after Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, and maybe even Kyle Hendricks.

And, just so you know, the offers won’t be mind-blowing. If this offseason is any indicator, Jed Hoyer will probably be looking for more scratch-offs, salary relief, and maybe a few dozen Rawlings.

How did this come to pass? How could it be this bad? Well, you have heard of that somewhat famous ship called the Titanic, right? Even the biggest, coolest, and newest ship sometimes meets its match in an otherwise innocuous piece of frozen water just floating around in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes, bad luck rears its ugly head in the midst of some other bad decisions. Then again, it’s awfully hard to see what’s coming without the gift of foresight.

Take Schwarber, for instance. As much as it pains me to say it, the Cubs probably should have traded Schwarber after the 2016 World Series at the height of his potential trade value. Cubs fans might have led full-scale riots on Wrigley Field and Theo Epstein’s office, but from where we’re standing right now, it would have been the right move in hindsight and may have landed them a young arm for the rotation. What was the line from that Kenny Rogers’ song?

Chicago Cubs: “Just pretend it’s flat ground!”

The Cubs probably shouldn’t have signed Tyler Chatwood, Brandon Morrow, or even Craig Kimbrel. I don’t know who the alternatives would have been at the time offhand, but those three didn’t work out very well. To be fair, even at the time each was signed, they were all pretty serious gambles due to injury history or previous ineffectiveness.

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The Cubs also should have signed a deal with Comcast, NBC Sports, or whatever conglomerate would have given the team hundreds of millions of dollars without any start-up costs. Sure, the club could have made more money going their own route in the best of all scenarios, but anyone could see the way cable was heading. Starting up your own channel and dealing with carriage concerns was enough of of an undertaking to question its viability and fiscal return. Then the pandemic hit and now Marquee already looks like as big of a flop as, well… the Titanic.

I realize that no one had any idea the pandemic was about to hit and upend everyone and every business in this country, but being a little less greedy probably would have served everyone a little bit better in hindsight.

Then again, there are probably a lot of things everyone would have done differently, both in their personal and professional lives, given what we know now.