Read on Twitter
Thread: The Cubs front office has made a ton of mistakes since taking over. They were limited in the early years, and far outweighed by a string of great decisions. But the ratio swung almost 180 degrees since 2016.
They grew conservative, became slow to react to league trends... https://twitter.com/sahadevsharma/status/1344650361068544005
They grew conservative, became slow to react to league trends... https://twitter.com/sahadevsharma/status/1344650361068544005
...became afraid to break up their core and take calculated chances with their roster, stopped making creative roster constructions, and just generally boxed themselves in further and further into a decline phase for the org...
...2017 was really the nadir.
In 2018 they began overhauling their scouting/development philosophies, but still weren't making any appreciable changes at the MLB level. Running back same core, losing trades, virtually no net positive decisions in UFA, disastrous 2019 bullpen...
In 2018 they began overhauling their scouting/development philosophies, but still weren't making any appreciable changes at the MLB level. Running back same core, losing trades, virtually no net positive decisions in UFA, disastrous 2019 bullpen...
They did begin making good hires (Hottovy, Breslow, Driver, Kantrovitz, etc) and their influence seems to be taking more hold in 2020. Everyone thought Cubs pitching would hold them back this year, but both the starters and pen held up thanks to value moves and development...
Theo and Jed didn't all of a sudden become baseball dumb in 2016-17. Even smart people, with a long track record of success make mistakes, and can even be slow to see when those mistakes compound. If there weren't signs they hadn't identified the issues...
...and were not taking steps to address the problems then I wouldn't be comfortable with the internal handoff from Theo to Jed and would be calling for people to lose their jobs. But I do think they get it. It's just difficult to quickly change the course of a baseball org...
...They boxed themselves in pretty good, and I do think the timing of the pandemic had more drastic effects on the Cubs than most other teams, making Jed's job even more difficult. I have some faith he gets it though...
... I'm not a fan of Darvish deal but it is at least another sign Cubs are breaking out of their rut. I still have many open questions and concerns, but I don't believe the organization is rudderless, which is kind of how they felt a couple of years ago.
