During the 2020 season, the Chicago Cubs had an expression for each day in which Yu Darvish was the starting pitcher for that day’s game. “Today is win day”. That is because, for the most part, that is the day the Cubs knew they had a great chance to win given the success Darvish had last season.
Darvish is no longer with the team and that means that “Win Day” responsibilities were transferred to Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks was on the mound for the Cubs on Opening Day against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday and the Cubs lost.
Sure, there are the necessary caveats in terms of the meaning of Opening Day. Those caveats being “It is only one game”; “Don’t look at records until after Memorial Day”; and, “By the end of the season, no one will remember who won on Opening Day”.
All those caveats are true to a certain extent. Like for example, the World Series defending Los Angeles Dodgers losing to the Colorado Rockies can be chalked up to only being Opening Day and the Dodgers having a World Series hangover. At the end of the day, the Dodgers are still going to be among the top teams in the National League.
When it comes to the Cubs and their Opening Day performance? Those caveats can not be applied.
Reason being is that the performance that the Chicago Cubs had on Thursday was the same performance that the Cubs have had for the past three seasons. Their offense looked broken as they struggled to get on base let alone even put the ball in play. The bullpen struggled with throwing strikes.
What bailed the Cubs out during the World Series season of 2016 and 2017 was that their offense had the timely “big hit”. In fact, the Cubs’ offense was dependent on having the “big hit” and that is the reason they were successful and had extended Post-Season runs.
Starting with the 2018 season, the Cubs offense no longer was able to secure the “big hit”. Coupling that with the factor that the Cubs don’t really have high-on base hitters, it is very clear why the Cubs’ offense has struggled. It is something that former Cubs’ President Theo Epstein and current Cubs’ President have Jed Hoyer. It is something that both Hoyer and Epstein have vowed to fix.
However, the Cubs have had four free agent position player Major League contract signings since the 2018 season. Those signings were Daniel Descalso prior to the 2019 season; and, Joc Pederson, Austin Romine and Tony Wolters prior to this season. Descalso was injured for most of his two-year stint with the Cubs. Pederson profiles as a power hitter. Romine and Wolters are backup catchers. So essentially, the Cubs have done nothing to fix their offense.
Though, the Cubs offense will be forced to change after this season. Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant are all projected free agents. It seems like a near certainty that at least one of those three will not be back with the Cubs after this season. But until then, the offense will remain broken.
Caveats aside, all that Opening Day proofed was that the Chicago Cubs are a broken team that needs to rebuild.
