It would be nice if the Cubs took a cue from the new pitch clock and hurried up already with their rebuild.
I suppose that’s not the best way to welcome in a new season, so let me try again.
Baseball is back! The Cubs open their season Thursday against the Brewers at Wrigley Field, and the senses are ready for everything about it. The sight of fans lining up for hot dogs and beer. The sound of a bat hitting a ball. The smell of freshly cut grass, which is much, much better than freshly shoveled snow, which has no smell but stinks for the person doing the shoveling.
Ah, baseball.
You know what else speaks of spring and anticipation? The hope that the Cubs start making good on their promise that winning isn’t far off for a franchise going through its second rebuild in a decade. Nothing says “baseball is back’’ quite like impatient fingers thrumming on a table. That’s the sound of people tired of losing.
This is Year 2½ of the rebuild. Since dealing stars Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javy Baez at the 2021 trade deadline, the Cubs have gone 95-125. Attendance has dropped quite a bit, in part because of Covid-19 and in part because of a fan base that figures there are other things to do in life than paying to watch bad baseball.
The Cubs went 74-88 last season, so it’s not an unreasonable demand/expectation/on-your-knees plea that they go .500 in 2023. After all, it’s a rebuild, not a mosey.
Almost everything about the first rebuild was a success. Fans bought into whatever former team president Theo Epstein presented them, including the idea that enjoyment could be found in tracking the progress of prospects in the minor leagues while a floundering-on-purpose big-league club worked to amass high draft picks. It led to the 2016 World Series title and a “Revenge of the Nerds’’ generation of wanna-be GMs that worshiped at Epstein’s feet.
A team can pull that off once. It can’t make fans go through a second rebuild and expect them to obsess on the WAR or the BABIP of a prospect in Knoxville while blissfully ignoring the carnage at Wrigley Field. I think the Cubs kind of know this because they only kind of got involved in free agency in the offseason.
The new face of the franchise is shortstop Dansby Swanson, who signed a seven-year, $177 million contract in December. The Cubs settled on him when the asking price for shortstops Carlos Correa, Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts became too rich for the team’s blood. A franchise worth $4.1 billion should have blood cells that look like dollar signs on a microscope slide, but, whatever. The Cubs have dug in on the idea of a small-market team that, through no fault of its own, works in a big market. Some people are fooled. Some aren’t.
So, Swanson it is. He’s a good player who had a really rough spring training, struggling to get north of a .100 batting average. The only way that matters is if he gets off to an awful start to the regular season. For now, there are only possibilities. If he can be the hitter he was last year, with 25 home runs and 96 runs batted in for the Braves, maybe he can pull some of the younger players along with him. He’s an excellent fielder, and the double-play combo of Swanson and second baseman Nico Hoerner should be very good.
And that name. Dansby Swanson. So much better than plain, old Dan Swanson, isn’t it? So many headline opportunities.
“The Great Dansby.’’
“Wrigley Field? More like Wrigsby Field.’’
If you don’t like his first name, you’re probably not going to like his dad’s name, either: Cooter.
The Cubs should have one of the most improved lineups in the National League Central, which probably sounds a tad patronizing, considering they finished 19th out of 30 teams last season with a .238 average. But the addition of Swanson, Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini should make a difference.
The pitching, on the other hand, is worrisome, if you’re the worrying type of fan or manager. The Cubs did very little in the offseason to ease concerns about the rotation. Thursday’s starter will be Marcus Stroman, whose career record is 67-67.
That doesn’t sound promising, but if you’re the optimistic type, you can say that a .500 record is the Cubs’ goal this season. Maybe Stroman’s prominent role in Opening Day is a sign, then.
If you’re a pessimist, just know that the new pitch clock could cut a half hour off each game, meaning a bad Cubs season could seem like it’s mercifully going quicker. There’s always a silver lining if you look hard enough.
