As the July 31 trade deadline neared, the Cubs, with one of the best records in baseball, were cast by seemingly all the national experts as big swingers, total movers and shakers, on the short list of contenders that were ready to pounce on major opportunities to improve their World Series chances.
Remember that nonsense?
Boy, it sounded promising at the time. But we all should have known better.
Instead, the Cubs tinkered around the edges, trading for relievers Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers, human-eggshell pitcher Mike Soroka and utility man Willi Castro. Legit big leaguers, all. But to the average baseball fan, that’s still essentially a who’s-who of “Who?”
The Padres gave up their top prospect to get immensely talented pitcher Mason Miller, who’s under club control until 2029. The Astros got back into the Carlos Correa business, taking their lineup to another level. The Phillies added powerhouse reliever Jhoan Duran. The Mariners did what it took to land a prime home run bat with Eugenio Suarez. There were big fish out there, but the Cubs’ front office took its usual approach of trying to “thread the needle.”
No one else went all-in on a top starting pitcher, president Jed Hoyer pointed out to fans via the media, as if that meant the mega-market Cubs shouldn’t have been the exception.
“We have a responsibility to the 2025 Cubs but also the 2032 Cubs,” general manager Carter Hawkins told ESPN, as if auditioning to succeed Hoyer someday as the Cubs’ Head of Kicking Cans Down the Road.
Instead, the Cubs’ signature move was made by chairman Tom Ricketts, who gave Hoyer a multiyear contract extension three days before the trade deadline.
“We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to working with Jed for years to come,” Ricketts said in a July 28 statement.
Ricketts pressed “play” on the Return of the Jed Eye. Hoyer, no Luke Skywalker, scoped out the challenge in front of him and said, “Maybe some other time.”
Since Hoyer’s extension, the Cubs are 5-8 after losing Tuesday in Toronto. Almost incredibly, they’ve gone from tied atop the division to trailing the runaway Brewers by 7½ games over that same period. That’s the largest division lead in the majors.
And now it’s wild card or bust for the needle-threading North Siders, who at least remain in great shape to reach the postseason. Surely, they won’t collapse like it’s 2018, 2004 and 1969 all rolled into one. Right?
And then there’s this: Why should the Cubs getting into the playoffs any old way be good enough for anyone? The Cubs haven’t won a playoff series — or even a playoff game — since 2017. The last time they high-fived one another after a playoff game, rookie Ian Happ was the youngest player on the postseason roster. Now, Happ, who turned 31 on Tuesday, is the longest-tenured member of the team. If these Cubs peter out in the wild-card round in October, that’s called failure, folks.
As last season ended, the Cubs didn’t merely tip their caps to the Brewers, who’d won the division by 10 games. Instead, the Cubs used that 10-game gap as the premise for their approach to 2025. It was unacceptable to be left in the dust by the Brewers. The gap had to close. Ideally — considering the Brewers’ meager spending on players — the gap might even be reversed. Well, guess who suddenly has a very real chance to win the division by 10 games again?
That would be the Brewers, who currently have 16 players — nine pitchers, four infielders, two outfielders and a catcher — who weren’t on the team’s Opening Day roster. That’s 16 out of 26, if you can wrap your brain around it. That’s the team that can’t lose, that has the best record in baseball, that’s bullying the division and rag-dolling the Cubs.
Is it too late for the Cubs and Brewers to trade front offices? The Brewers traded elite reliever Devin Williams and didn’t re-sign their leading home-run hitter, shortstop Willy Adames, after last season yet somehow have gotten better. They didn’t upgrade from shortstop Joey Ortiz at this year’s deadline, and Ortiz is hitting .342 in August. They traded for White Sox flop Andrew Vaughn and stashed him in the minors along the way, called him up in early July and are 24-4 since as Vaughn — batting .352 with a 1.045 OPS — mashes everything that isn’t nailed down into orbit.
“Every day has been great here,” Vaughn told the Sun-Times last week. “We never know who’s going to top whatever happened [the last game]. Our pitching staff is phenomenal. Our lineup, one through nine, great. The guys off the bench, great. The atmosphere is different and special.”
Unlike the Cubs’ Craig Counsell, Brewers manager Pat Murphy seems to have almost a magic touch. When Vaughn, a former No. 3 overall draft pick by the Sox, arrived in Milwaukee, his reputation as a hitter in shambles, Murphy told him, “Don’t try to do too much. Don’t try to be too smart. Don’t try to figure it all out. Just see it and hit it. If you swing at balls, you’ll be back at Triple-A. Otherwise, we’re not touching your swing. Get your coconut straight.”
The Brewers are winning with Jedi mind tricks.
Meanwhile, the Jed Eye Cubs are doing their thing. Thread, meet needle. Can, meet road. And so it goes.
