The Chicago Cubs are 11-6 and are headed back home for what could prove to be a pretty important homestand here in the early going. Saturday through Thursday, they’ll get the Dodgers for four games and the Padres for three. A successful homestand and the Cubs get set to head into May as a relevant team in the National League Central.
Though it hasn’t been too long since that was the case, what’s notable is the facelift and total revamp of the roster from what was the Golden Era of Cubs baseball.
The fizzling of the Golden Era
Joe Maddon was the Cubs manager from 2015-19. He was the first Cubs manager ever to appear in three straight NLCS and the first to win the World Series since, well, you know. Earlier this week on Chicago radio, Maddon said he wished the World Series core had been kept together longer.
“We should’ve stayed together longer, there’s no question,” Maddon said (670 The Score). “We had a lot more chicken left on the bone. We weren’t given the opportunity. I’ll say that because it’s true.”
I guess I’ll agree to strongly disagree with Maddon’s assertion. It was absolutely over.
On the surface level, the 2021 Cubs were coming off a stretch of six straight winning seasons that included five trips to the playoffs and three division titles along with, obviously, the 2016 World Series title. Maddon apparently forgot to look deeper, though. The 2020 team started 13-3 and was under .500 the rest of the way, barely holding onto the division in the pandemic-shortened 60-game season. The 2019 Cubs lost 10 of their last 12 games to fall out of the playoffs and while there were absolutely injury issues, something just felt broken. Going back to the previous year — a 95-win team that lost the one-game playoff for the NL Central title and then lost the Wild Card game — the offensive numbers would end up in a fine place, but it was so inconsistent (“boom or bust”) that on the bad days it just felt hopeless.
Basically, by the time that Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez were traded just before the 2021 deadline, the team was stale and needed a change, even if it felt radical at the time. Willson Contreras followed them out the door after the 2022 season and that was what was left of the offensive core Cubs fans will never forget.
Reshaping the roster
Once Kyle Hendricks returns from injury, he and manager David Ross — who was a catcher with the…
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