As the Chicago Cubs celebrate their first playoff berth since 2008, fans of the team will have occasion to look back at the long and winding road that has brought them back to the postseason.
After the team’s spectacular flame-out in those 2008 playoffs, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game sweep after winning 97 games during the regular season, things went south in a hurry. Bad contracts, aging veterans and a depleted farm system all conspired to rob the Cubs of depth and talent, and after winning 83 games in 2009, the bottom fell out and they found themselves in the basement of the big leagues by the time the 2011 season ended.
Once that season came to an end, the Ricketts family made some sweeping changes to the way the front office operated, hiring Theo Epstein as the President of Baseball Operations, and Epstein in turn brought aboard Jed Hoyer as General Manager and Jason McLeod as minor league director.
With all of those big changes came a simple mantra: patience. The Cubs could have thrown money at the problems facing the team, but instead they focused on developing talent through the minor league level and on changing the culture of the entire organization. They drafted talented players like Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, traded for others like Anthony Rizzo and Jake Arrieta, and slowly but surely turned the Cubs from one of the most talent-bereft organizations in baseball to one of the deepest and richest.
After three years of losing at the big league level and making incredible progress in the minor league system, the Cubs went into overdrive in the 2014 offseason. They fired Rick Renteria and hired Joe Maddon as manager. They dipped into the free agent pool and brought in Jon Lester. They swung for the fences and traded for veteran players like Miguel Montero and Dexter Fowler.
Even with all of this, the big additions would come as the 2015 season got started. Bryant made his way to the Majors in April. Addison Russell, whom the Cubs acquired in a brilliant trade with the Oakland A’s in 2014, was soon to follow. Schwarber followed suit as the summer went on.
Add in the emergence of Arrieta as a dominant ace and the MVP-caliber season that Rizzo has put on, and the Cubs have the perfect mix of young talent and veteran know-how to be a dangerous steam once the calendar flips to October next week.
Chicago Baseball
The big question now is just how far this Cubs team can go this season. Making the postseason is a huge step forward for a team that has been mired in mediocrity for the past few seasons, but if they can win the National League wild card game, then all bets are off. They have the offensive firepower, the top-of-the-line starting pitching, and the confidence necessary to succeed.
The question remains this: Can they overcome 107 years of history and finally bring an elusive championship to Chicago?
Even if they fall short this season, there is still plenty of optimism surrounding the team, and rightfully so. They have plenty of money to spend in a pitching-rich free agent market this winter. They have tons of cost-controlled position players that will be with the team for many years to come. They finally have a manager that has taken the reins and directed the team in a positive direction.
All of these things are critical to sustained success, and Cubs fans enjoying this first taste of glory should be confident that there is plenty more to come as the future unfolds.
