Think of all the losses. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908, and last competed in the fall classic in 1945. Wikipedia classifies the period between 1947-81 as “The Dark Ages.” The lovable Cubbies lost 197 the last two years. Hard to believe, but 197 represents the worst consecutive two year total in Cubs history. And these two years have been under the direction of “wunderkid” Theo Epstein as GM.
The Ricketts family acquired the Cub franchise in 2009 near the end of Jim Hendry’s spending spree, and replaced Hendry with Theo Epstein. He arrived in Chicago after being credited with creating two Red Sox championship teams. Personally, I believe he has been given waaaaaaayyyyy too much credit for the Sox success. So Epstein enters the Cubs picture, pitching a rebuilding plan based on patience, a youth movement, and publicly throwing in the towel for four years. This plan coincides with Epstein signing a five year, $18 million contract.
Epstein and Ricketts decided to go cheap for a while. Shedding large contracts, e.g., Alphonso Soriano, and going cheap has saved owner Ricketts $60 million since his first season. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs 2014 payroll is $88 million, which is twice as much as the lowest payroll in MLB – miserable Houston. The Dodgers have the highest payroll at $235 million. Epstein’s “major” moves this offseason include signing Justin Ruggiano to a $2 million, one year contract. The 31 year old hit .222 for the Marlins last year and had an on-base percentage of .298. Those numbers are pretty pathetic, but the contract is cheap. Another signee, Darwin Barney, has similar numbers to Ruggiano (.208, .266, and $2.3 million). I think this kind of rebuilding plan has a serious error. I foresee at least 100 losses by the Cubs in Epstein’s third year and in the 100th year of historic Wrigley Field.
Wrigley Field will see a decline in attendance as well.
Postscript – I thought this Chicago Reader article has some great insight and contains a story line of which I had never heard:
