Greenberg: While Brewers can’t lose, Cubs are buckling under weight of expectations
It was a few hours before the start of an important late-July series in Milwaukee when a couple of Chicago reporters approached Christian Yelich at his locker.
Players buzz around before the first game of a series, going from this meeting to that one, and plenty of stars duck out of being available, but Yelich had time to talk. And why wouldn’t he want to?
The Brewers were hot and, well, he’s starred in this movie before. He knows his role. Yelich talked about his team being the “Average Joes,” like in the movie Dodgeball, and how young stars such as Jacob Misiorowski and second-chance guys such as Andrew Vaughn, whom the White Sox demoted, can all blend in a clubhouse that is used to defying the odds.
At that moment the Cubs and Brewers were still tied for first place in the NL Central, which was a victory in itself for small-market Milwaukee, considering the context of the season. We didn’t know that a few hours later, the tie would be broken — for seemingly the last time this season. However, Yelich’s smirk told us how he felt about the state of the rivalry.
“It kind of feels like we’re just playing with house money,” he said that night. “They’re supposed to win the division. They’re supposed to have high expectations. They have half our coaching staff. They made a bunch of trades. So if they don’t win the division, I’m sure it’ll be pretty disappointing. For us, we’re trying to make life tough on them and the rest of the league and seeing what we can do. That’s always been our motto around here.”
Yelich and Vaughn homered that night as the Brewers won. They won the next day again before losing the finale of the series. They haven’t lost since. A fortnight later, they’re up 7½ games in the division. Maybe it wasn’t Craig Counsell’s magic touch that was keeping the Brew Crew on top?
One team has succumbed to the weight of expectations and it wasn’t the one expected to finish in second.
“You know, our team doesn’t feel any pressure,” Yelich said. “We feel like no one even expects us to be in this spot anyway. So we’re just trying to make life hard on them and the rest of the league and continue to give it hell.”
That was the Cubs’ last series before their trade deadline derided around the world. Cubs players and fans were salivating for reinforcements — this team was begging for a jolt — and instead of the cavalry, Cubs president Jed Hoyer and his GM Carter Hawkins delivered a horse-drawn wagon and some slingshots.
They got two fine-enough relievers, a swingman pitcher who’s already hurt and a utility guy. You can see how inspired everyone was.
And just when you thought everyone was grousing enough about the state of the team, Hawkins made matters worse in a recent conversation with ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Talking about the Cubs’ decision-making during the trade deadline and the high price for pitching, this is what Hawkins said:
“Teams are trying to find that guy that can lock down the eighth or ninth inning, but that also costs a lot,” Hawkins told Rogers. “That costs a lot of future wins. We have a responsibility to the 2025 Cubs but also the 2032 Cubs. That’s not always popular in the moment, but it’s decisions we have to make.”
In less than a week’s time, “The 2032 Cubs” became part of the sports vernacular in Chicago. And now, every time the Cubs lose, someone brings it up. Lately, it’s been brought up a lot.
“It’ll have to do until 2032” isn’t much of a battle cry, is it?
The way the market played out affected more teams than the Cubs. Most starting pitchers didn’t move. But that also meant there was a surplus of them available, ripe for a bold front office to make a Godfather offer.
As Hoyer noted after Michael Soroka went on the IL, it’s on him to wear it if the deals don’t work out. However, the decisions Hawkins spoke about don’t exist in a vacuum. The front office knows the wheelbarrows of cash they’re supposed to be getting from ownership are more like toy shopping carts full of rolled coins.
Still, the deadline was an abject failure, and it’s looking more like this season is too.
The pitching isn’t the issue right now, and it’s not the front office either. The vaunted Cubs offense has utterly collapsed, bringing up unfriendly reminders of the 2018 season. The Cubs won 95 games that year but faded down the stretch as the red-hot Brewers tied the division on the next-to-last day of the season. A slapdash offense scored one or fewer runs a whopping 40 times, including in both Game 163 and the wild-card game.
That was the season that presaged the end of that core of players. This year looked like the start of something new with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker, but no one is screaming about paying Tucker right now and it’s past time to chill out a bit about PCA. The front office might’ve whiffed at the deadline, but the players are the ones doing it on the field.
Since the All-Star break, the Cubs are 10-12 and have been outscored 94-88, a far cry from how they were playing earlier this season. In August they’ve scored one or fewer runs in four out of the 10 games. Unlike in 2018, there’s still plenty of time to snap out of a funk.
Tuesday night wasn’t that time. The Cubs lost 5-1 in Toronto while the Brewers clobbered the Pirates 14-0. Just because there’s plenty of time left doesn’t mean they use it wisely.
The Brewers and Cubs meet for the final time this season next week. They’ll play five games in four days at Wrigley Field, starting with Monday’s doubleheader. The Cubs might be 10 games down by that point, so who knows how much it’ll matter, but if there’s ever a time to hit, it’ll be then. As it stands today, it’s Milwaukee’s division to lose. The Cubs are just trying to stay in the top wild-card spot so ownership can get a couple of playoff home games before the season ends.
The way the Cubs are playing, it’s looking like another “Wait till 2032” kind of season.
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