Nico Hoerner earned a Gold Glove nomination after notching five Defensive Runs Saved in just over 200 innings at the keystone in 2020, but his versatility will make him more than a bit player for the Cubs moving forward. Thanks to his plus glovework, the 23-year-old was worth 0.7 bWAR in 2020 despite slashing .222/.312/.259. His defensive prowess will keep his name on the lineup card while his bat works to catch up, writes Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times. Hoerner played five positions including centerfield – the Cubs’ most glaring long-and-short-term hole. Ian Happ was the bulk starter in center in 2020, but he could move to left now that Kyle Schwarber was non-tendered. The Cubs are likely to add at least another name to their outfield mix, but don’t be surprised to see Hoerner continue to get looks there in the spring while competing with David Bote for regular second base reps.
As we look forward to the new year, let’s see what else is happening around the sport…
- With two COVID-19 vaccines now on the market, owners are considering a push to delay the season opener until May. In their minds, a significant enough number in vaccinations could justify the delay, writes Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Players have thus far resisted any attempts to push back the start of the season, however. The MLBPA wants a 162-game season rather than face another year of prorated pay. With coronavirus cases still on the rise, however, it’s prudent for MLB to take whatever precautions necessary to limit the risk of breakouts in 2021.
- MLB.com’s Director of Research and Development Daren Willman put together a fun chart to peruse this holiday season (via Twitter). Williams posted the current home run leaders by birth state, and there are definitely some places for a young go-getter to take their local crown. Maine, Alaska, and New Hampshire each have career leaders with less than 100 home runs, while Duke Sims landed exactly at the century mark to leader all Utahans. Paul Goldschmidt (Delaware), Bryce Harper (Nevada), Kurt Suzuki (Hawaii), Mike Trout (New Jersey), and Ryan Zimmerman (North Carolina) could add to their leads in 2021, while the recently-retired Alex Gordon ended his career as Nebraska’s all-time home run king. Executive Director of the MLBPA Tony Clark also makes the list as Kansas’ all-time leader.
Ian Happ is overrated and the Cubs need to sell high on him. They have a team full of high strikeout guys that have pop. Letting Schwarber go was a start, but I’ll take Schwarber’s potential over Happ’s, albeit that neither might turn out to be much more than they are already. Honestly, just tear this team down, let the bad contracts expire, and let’s try it all over again in 2023 and beyond, but not get so attached to homegrown players this time around. The Phillies did it with Howard, Utley, Rollins, etc and the Giants are living it now with Posey, Belt, Crawford etc… it’s better to sell a year early rather than a year late.
Happ is still under team control for a while, they have several players leaving after next season, those are the ones that need to go first… A guy who they can sell on while his value is at an all-time high is Yu Darvish.
Happ doesn’t really have that much trade value, he’s more valuable to the team than as a trade piece IMO.
Happ is extremely versatile, since he can play multiple positions well enough to be a starter. Schwarber is just a DH who can occasionally play LF or 1B. Big difference there. Also, I wouldn’t necessarily call Happ’s production at the plate a fluke. He’s always had the potential to be an above average hitter. He just needed to learn how to shorten his swing and make more contact. I’ve always believed Happ had the potential to be one of the better LFers in the game. Theo’s obsession with Schwarber kept Happ out of the lineup and limited his ABs.
I agree on all counts. I’d also argue that the sometimes sporadic ABs and frequent position changes likely hurt Happs development. IMO leave him at one position until he becomes established for awhile at the plate, then talk about turning him into a zobrist super utility guy
I don’t disagree the Darvish is a trade chip, but trading players with control is what will give you the best return. Personally, I’d try trade anything of value right now, and try to dump as much $ as possible. The only contract that likely can’t be moved is Heyward. Kimbrel could be dumped with someone else if you’re willing to take back a lesser package to dump him. Otherwise, the only person I’d attempt to extend would be Rizzo, and that’s just to save fan interest and keep people coming to the game.
Of course the Cubs should blow it up and rebuild. Most teams would have started trading guys two years ago. But it’s the Cubs. They are much too conservative and risk adverse to relentlessly pursue championships. It’s all about revenue at this point. They’ll start rebuilding AFTER every player with a household name is gone, and spend the next decade in mediocrity (baseball hell) waiting for a superstar to fall in their lap.
Yes I agree if Cubs traded arietta and wade davis at trade deadline 2017 would have gotten a haul. Then jiminez would still be a Cub. I disagree about decade of hell . Cubs print money so they can get right back in hunt . Alzolay and Marquez are up and coming pitchers
The Cubs print money for the Ricketts family, sure. They’re not investing another dime into the roster, as evidenced by Epstein’s departure. The few big contracts Theo gave out the last four years were terrible. The roster got worse because of him. Gotta read between the lines, man.
The roster got worse but the Cubs still never finished below .500…. unlike the White Sox who finally posted a winning record this decade.
Epstein took over a team full of bad contracts and a horrible farm system and built them into a Championship caliber team in three years…. It’s taken the White Sox three times as long and they still don’t have a Championship caliber team.
That’s right, just focus on the regular season wins like a good koolaid-drinker. So cold, and sweet.
Koolaid-drinker…. how original and not outdated. What is next, “you live in your moms basement”?
I didn’t coin the phrase. Maybe if Cubs fans weren’t so delusional, co-signing on everything the team does… Just say no to the Cubbie Koolaid.
Is there actually a hitting “coach” encouraging any player to shorten his swing for more contact today? IMHO, many of these new metrics are precisely the root of the overall game’s lack of quality mechanics and theories.
They teach lift and fly balls. They preach hit the ball over the shift. They look at slugging and over rate new stats while ignoring strikeouts and dismiss batting average.
Same with pitching. They preach limits on innings pitched, reward pitch speed and the “quality start” allowing an era of 4.50 to become a desired commodity, while ignoring wins, innings pitched (which keeps the ball out of aaa pitchers’ gloves), pitching to contact and control in the strike zone while changing speeds.
The next great manager will be the one who throws the binder in the garbage during games and starts using his own instincts.
Happ was a high 1st round draft pick so if anything he is UNDER-rated. True, not all high first round picks make it and of the ones that do not many are stars. But to say he is overrated at this point makes no sense since he isn’t being.portrayed as a star by anyone. Hell, he isn’t even being seen as an every day starter except for the fact that the Cubs have nobody else. Who is overrating him – the Cubs? Who else do they have? It’s out of need, not based on delusions of grandeur. But he is versatile, runs well, has power with OBP skills. There is a lot to like. That said, he strikes out too much.
I’m going to disagree on a couple key points:
First, the Cubs are still a very good team and have the talent to win the Central again next season. They do not need to tear down the time and start rebuilding and with as much trash as everyone loves to talk about Esptein, the Cubs SHOULD be in excellent shape to add to the team AND reset the luxury tax. The Cubs are currently sitting around 65 million under the luxury tax. The farm system only looks “bad” if you do not look hard enough. Lots of young potentially impact arms in the farm that are improving, Davis and Howard are potential superstars, Nwogu is going to be an absolute stud, Strumpf and Amaya could easily be everyday players, Hearn and Quintero are both high upside catchers as well…
Roster wise, the Cubs (again should) have money to spend to slightly tweak the roster. Normal season, they would have had enough to get in the Springer market but he would simply be a luxury, Brantley and Wong should be their 1a and 1b target followed by Tanaka to round out the rotation. Which would give them a top 3 that would rival any rotation in baseball and a line up that would do the same.
Now Happ, Happ has always been underrated by the fan base. He rakes against righties and always has. Lefties he swings a wet noodle against and really should be considered a platoon player at this point.
The Cubs have no depth in their pitching rotation, and their hitting is anemic. Rizzo is aging, and opposing pitchers have Bryant’s swing figured out. Baez is a shadow of himself at the plate, and can’t stay healthy at shortstop. Heyward is rarely impactful and overpaid. Who is their CF? Bullpen not a strength. You see a “good” team. I see a team that struggles to .500 with a non-covid schedule.
31 years old is aging? If that’s the case I’m an old man at 35. Rizzo won’t be 32 until August 8th and Jason Heyward will be 32 on August 9th. It would also mean Mike Trout is aging turning 30 on August 7th. Time to trade him too I guess.
Happ is their everyday CF
First of all, saying a guy is “aging” like it’s a negative is the moronic thing anyone can say. Everyone is aging.
Funny you accuse the Cubs of only winning the division because of Covid but you claim all the Cubs are regressing because they had a bad 60 games… it’s laughable.
I love how “baseball has figured Bryant out” guess baseball figured Yelich out, and Martinez and Altuve and the countless other guys who struggled last year. .282/.382/..521./.903 “regressing”
Baez cannot stay healthy at short? He played all but one game last year…. and played in 160 games in 2018 at short…
Your comments are so blindly stupid they almost were not worth commenting on.
BTW this sub .500 team won their division… unlike the White Sox who haven’t won theirs since 2008… and congratulations on your playoff appearance… I mean baseball had to expand the playoffs by two teams to do so but hey it counts… kind of.
wrek, in baseball terms, Rizzo is aging (regressing and injury prone). He’s still a good 1B, but he can’t carry a team offensively like he used to. The point is, the Cubs aren’t a contending team anymore. They win enough games in a bad division to sneak into a silnge-elim wildcard game, and get smoked. Had they made a few roster changes (trades, free agent signings) the last few seasons, they could easily be among the best teams in the NL. As it stands, they’re lucky the Reds and Cardinals have been just as bad or worse.
You’re beyond moronic…. you do realize Abreu is older and it just so happens put up his worst year when he was 31…. so I guess in your mind he was aging but somehow isn’t aging anymore.
2019- Rizzo had a 3.8 offensive WAR to Abreu’s 2.7 and a 139 OPS + to Abreu’s 118… but Rizzo cannot carry an offense.
NL Central is bad? Three playoff teams last year, two playoff teams the year before, two the year before that.
Do you realize how stupid you make yourself look with your misinformation?
Again with the age? It is an analogy, one that obviously went over your head. If you can’t see that Anthony Rizzo is not the player he was four years ago, then you haven’t been paying attention.
Abreu had a career 60 games. He was mediocre the last couple years. The Sox young guys folded like a tent down the stretch. I don’t think I would crown them just yet
Do you know what analogy means? You completely misused it in a sentence. Try using smaller words you actually know the meaning of… him, her and the should be right up your alley.
I’m assuming you mean he isn’t the same player he was in 2016 (which is 5 seasons ago) In 2016 Rizzo had a .928 OPS, in 2019 he had a .924 OPS so yeah he is clearly falling off offensively as you suggest. Not to mention since then he’s won 3 straight Gold Gloves.
I didn’t see Happ play this past season very much, did his swing change any?
The difference between Schwarber and Happ was always that Schwarber always got the raw end of the deal with the outside pitch, more times than not that was called a strike against him. And one way or another, it contributed to his higher strikeout totals (whether that pitch was strike 1, strike 2, or strike 3 – it was a pitch that should’ve been called a ball).
On the other hand, Happ’s strikeouts were because of his huge swing and he could whiff at pitches right down the middle of the plate. Some where along the lines Happ stopped being a hitter and thought himself a power hitter that hits homeruns.
I would agree in trading Happ now, while his value is high. I can see Happ with a .240 average, .330 OBP, 24 homeruns, and 180 strikeouts – that doesn’t scream huge value to me.
But he was a first round draft pick, so he must be good, right?
Clearly you haven’t seen Happ play much but I’ll answer your questions:
1.) has his swing changed- yes. He adjusted last season in AAA and closed his swing from the left side. What killed him early in his career was the high heat and he has been beating the high fastball like it owes him money. He has a small hole in his swing on pitches that are down and in.
2.) I’m not going to bash Schwarber but Happ is a much more complete player. Offensively Schwarber has more power but Happ is more well rounded. Defensively it’s not even close, Happ is a passable center fielder but has always been a plus corner defender.
Happ is really underrated and his only issue his struggles against left handed pitching.
Against righties Happ hit .260/.355/.560/.915 in 2020 and .273/.341/.591/.932 in 2019. On his career he is a .251/.354/.512/.866 hitter from the left side of the plate. Which is better than Schwarber across the board.
So look again at that value comment… Or, no offense, watch a guy play.
Happ is underrated. And doesn’t get the love and respect he deserves
“Happ is overrated but Cubs need to sell high on him?” I am sorry but what does this mean? He is really not very good but we need to get a ton of money or players for him?
lol
You have Harper listed as New Mexico when he’s from Nevada
It’s all Mexico really, lol
Knock off the racism.
@antone – your comment is the only racist one here, walk it back champ
You apparently know nothing about Mexican history. I’d advise that you step off.
Uh oh, mister tough guy advises us to step off. We’re afraid, so afraid.
I thought he was pointing out that it all came from Mexico…like they were both lands ceded in the treaty of Gudalupe. It’s quite funny how the people who see racism everywhere are always the ones telling others to stop being racist. It’s almost like they’re projecting…
I’m a historian of Mexico. I was referring to the pre-1848 border.
Yeah, never mind the native indigenous peoples who populated that area for thousands of years.
Bryce Harper is Nevada, not New Mexico
He was born in Vegas. So it could be Paris, or Monte Carlo, or Italy.
it’s Vegas, so you never know.
This comment deserves applause lol
I wonder who the real leaders are in California, NY and Florida since the names listed are cheaters. (Bonds, ARoid, and Sheffield)
“Cheaters” is broad and vague especially since the majority of pre 2000s guys were on roids, yet everyone will stick up for the guys they deem as “clean” when the reality is that the names you mentioned are the ones who happened to get caught.
Greenies are speed but apparently that’s not cheating to the espn-spoonfed crowd.
In my view, greenies don’t add 25 feet (or whatever) to every fly ball you hit. That’s the difference. Just my opinion.
Greenies make you not tired.
retire21: How about corked bats, vaseline, spit, files, sandpaper among other ways to “doctor” the baseball? Do you disregard the stats of players accused or caught using those “foreign substances”?
Did PEDs add 25 ft to every flyball hit?
It’s about recovery time through a long season of MLB, not hitting the ball farther.
I thought this was common knowledge.
Of course, more muscle mass may enable more power, but one still has to make contact.
Hence, why PEDs in baseball is about recovery time, not the more tenuous connection you’re making to support your contrasting point about greenies.
paddyo875, excuse me for not having the common knowledge. Are you telling me that a substance that builds muscle would not therefore cause the user who strikes something, to send that thing farther?!
For example, reportedly Bonds was envious of the McGwire/Sosa HR race, not their abilities to recover from injury.
Cheaters is only a “vague” phrase to those morally challenged.
They cheated, they stole from players, team owners, teams and fans.
I have a lot of empathy for the young guy trying to make a team Or even Bonds who cheated because he was being eclipsed by inferior players. But the fact is, and it’s a fact, they cheated.
There is not ambiguity.
Pete Rose is the only true cheater, if you list those other names without leading with Bud Selig out front of them, then that’s a massively clown-level take, bro.
It is Selig who was cheating from roids, not Bonds or Clemens.
If you believe that rose played to lose as a player you really didn’t see rose play.
As a manager even if he never bet on reds to lose he still contributed to losing since he’d hold out players in games with no action.
I think he should be in as a player but still banned from any involvement with mlb.
I always ask what would have been done if frank robinson were caught doing same long after he was put into hall.
I don’t believe they’d boot him.
Now this isn’t meant to imply anything against robinson. Just needed a manager who was a great player worthy of the hall of fame election.
Would it matter to rose if this were found out in 92.
I also agree that it’s a joke that selig is in hall but the best players from his time are all tainted even with minimal proof. Selig knew what was going on but looked away. The writers who elect also knew but looked away.
We fans also likely had a idea but kept watching. You can’t enjoy it one moment then cry foul the next. Honestly I think I rather have that game then the three true outcomes ball we have today.
Im sorry Selig what? now *that’s* a clown level take.
Betting on your team to win isn’t cheating. Every take you have is laughably awful.
We don’t know what he bet on – because Pete Rose accepted a life ban in exchange for the investigation into him stopping. Considering at that point we already knew he was betting, but he still chose to take a ban to stop more information coming out.. do you think he had nothing to hide?
The Pete Rose debate is done. He chose to take the ban – deal with it.
Pete Rose was/is a pedophile. He admitted to have sexual relations with a girl under 16 and was also accused that he had his memorabilia dealer bring him girls 12-14 years old.
I cannot believe people still want this guy in the Hall of Fame.
If Pete was a drug addict, or a drunk, he’d be in the Hall. Unfortunately, he was addicted to gambling, an addiction many people cannot wrap their heads around as easily. Between his competitive drive, and the addiction, it was an imperfect storm, of sorts. I was never a Reds fan, or a Rose fan, and I agree with everyone who says he’s a boorish doofus who has brought this on himself, but he was a Hall of Fame player, in my opinion, albeit a very flawed one.
Mark McGwire for California–no, that doesn’t work either, let’s go down to Ted Williams. Lou Gehrig for New York. Fred McGriff I think for Florida.
Bold take: I think that the owners are wanting to push the season till May to try and see what a 120 game-ish season would feel like instead of the 162 game season. Not because of Covid, but instead to try and see if they could make fans like shorter seasons. I think that they know they could navigate Covid in a normal 162 game season pretty easily in 21′, but it’s an excuse to try and make fans like the shorter seasons.
Is Alex Jones your daddy?
I could take a shorter season, but not that short. A return to 148, maybe.
Return?
Why would they want to leave money on the table.
Right – under most circumstances, the owners will want a longer season because that would make more money. Unless I’m missing something here…
The owners are not looking for excuses to permanently reduce their revenue by 25%. That’s not how they became billionaires.
Start the season in May, play 130 games, pay the players their full salaries owed by contract. Give the owners expanded playoffs again for 2021 to offset early season loss of revenue. When owners talk about losses, they’re simply referring to less profits for the year. The owners don’t share excess profits in the good years, so the players should give none of their pay back in off years.
Start season April 1, play with no fans until June 1, play with 50% capacity stadiums until postseason, then open them up in full.
Is it easy for you to spend other people’s money?
Exactly. You hit the nail on the head.
“When owners talk about losses, they’re simply referring to less profits for the year” – do you have sources to back up your claim on this one?
There is an easy compromise- don’t fully reduce the salaries on a pro-rated basis for a later start. So, if cutting down to a 120 game season (roughly 75%), reduce salaries by something like 15%- owners still do ok since they will likely make a disproportional amount if their revenue later in the season.
If there’s going to be vaccinations, just play with no fans until summer? Delaying the start seems like another money grab from owners, even when their future profits are guaranteed.
I am always happy to point out the owners’ greed, but in this case I don’t think anyone can bank on having a certain number of fans allowed in the stands at any given point of the 2021 season. I’ve heard a range of predictions as to when we will be able to resume “normal” activities, and full stadiums is usually one of the last things in that timeline.
With vaccinations, of course, there will probably be a nationwide version of something like what we saw in Texas in the CS & WS with limited attendance. It seems just as reasonable though to predict that we won’t have full stadiums till late 2021. Of course, we don’t know for sure, but in planning for the 2021 season, it’s very difficult to say with certainty when or even if fans will be filling stadiums – which makes the owners a bit less villainous this year, I think.
Home Run leaders by state???? Just what MLB needs, another silly stat.
IMHO, the delay in some obvious compromises needed between MLB and the MLBPA is an attempt to fold a new CBA into a 2021 agreement. Want full pay for a partial schedule? Universal DH? Expansion (even if it’s 2 years down the road)? Sure, owners will give all those things. Now call off the dogs and sign a new CBA.
Nothing diminishes franchise value like the threat of a labor stoppage. So negotiate all those things mentioned (and whatever else is on the table) And franchise value is an optimum consideration. The article mentions the Indians might be for sale at some point; so might a few others I can think of. With labor certainty guaranteed, owners will get a lot more for their teams.
Re: expansion, the new normal is to give investors 2 years to get their infrastructure set up, participating in the draft and International market during that process,.
silly stat? isnt it fairly cut and dry?
TC,
Can you change from ‘Williams’ to ‘Willman’ in this sentence? Thank you!
“‘Williams’ posted the current home run leaders by birth state, and there are definitely some places for a young go-getter to take their local crown”
Owners are clowns who want to delay the season as long as possible. They don’t care about vaccines. Just want to waste as much time as possible to implement another 60 game season…where they will lose the least amount of money.
the Cubs are going to ruin Hoerner by moving him around like the Phillies have done with Kingery.
Few can master fielding multiple positions while being a semi-productive or consistent bat. It never seems to work out for guys who are top of the line prospects. They should just let him stay at 2B and move Bote to the outfield. Bote wasn’t the Gold Glove finalist at 2B.
If the MLBPA asked for a reduction in playoff games due to a reduction in regular season games MLB will shut up about a reduced schedule.
Another prorated season coming.
Bryce Harper is from Nevada, not New Mexico…
Hoerner will almost certainly start in AAA to work on his hitting. Still, solid player and will help Cubs with contact rate.
As the likely replacement for Baez at SS in ’22 you are right, he should start next season at AAA and work on his offense.
The Cubs should bring Kipnis back, or sign Joe Panik and let them platoon with David Bote at 2B
I think the Cubs should go after Wong, he is a perfect fit for a Cubs team that needs a bat on ball hitter in the line up. I could not stand to see Wong come up against the Cubs while he was in St. Louis, even if he didn’t get a hit, he worked the pitch count up.
Owners better be prepared for a strike if they push to delay the season.
Owners are probably prepping for that anyway. CBA expires next winter and Manfred and Clark don’t have half of a brain between them. Its going to be an ugly winter next year watching those two try to negotiate
The union would get a thank you card from ownership. Striking to protest not being allowed to start the season is essentially volunteering agreement. “We refuse to play until you tell us we can start playing!”
Granted there could be a strike at the end of the season if stadiums are full by then.
A way to play more games with a delayed start would be to move the postseason to neutral warm weather sites again. Anybody wealthy enough to afford postseason tickets is likely also wealthy enough to afford airfare and hotel, so they could probably sell out the parks.
It’ll irritate fans of southern/domed teams, but I think it’s probably the best option.
What is a bit player, I’m not familiar with that term?
“will make him more than a bit player “
Unimportant, replaceable depth player.
More often associated with acting, a “bit” part is a small role.
The cubs have a few years but the cubs need to extend Happ. He’s severely underrated. Almora is underrated as a defensive player
I don’t think the Cubs should worry about extending anyone this season….
Reason being, the 2021-2022 free agent class is loaded! Especially at short stop. The Cubs, if TR allows the Cubs to spend, still have to reset the luxury tax. They have a lot of room to do so (roughly 65 million) but every penny counts when you are trying to work with a budget while fielding a playoff caliber team.
My personal opinion is that the Cubs should target Brantley and Wong on offense and Tanaka for the rotation and then take a flyer. Fill the bullpen with cheaper alternatives to stay below the LT and keep a slush fund available for mid-season additions.
If the Cubs didn’t think they were going to bring most of the guys back, I would strongly consider Springer and build around Springer, Happ, Contreras and Hoerner,
The only player that deserves to be extended at this point is Baez. Give hime a nice contract, then move him to 2B to keep him healthy and turning those beautiful double-plays. Let Bryant walk, then sign Lindor in free agency. There’s your core to build around for the next decade.
I’ll argue that Contreras is the only player worthy of an extension on the roster.
Baez and Rizzo are the priorities to extend.
@drasco Contreras can be extended next winter. For now the focus has to be on baez and rizzo.
I don’t think Baez or Rizzo is a priority to extend.
The only reason I would want to extend a player is to keep their AAV down and get a team friendly deal. It’s better now to keep good relations with guys you want to bring back and work on a free agent contract in the off season. Right now, if you extend either the risk vs. reward weighs heavily in the players favor.
Also, in Baez’s case, there are so many very good free agent short stops available next year it makes zero sense to extend him to a fair market deal. Lindor, Baez, Correa and Story are all Gold Glove caliber defenders at short with plus offense and Seager is a very solid option as well.
Rizzo you handle similar to Abreu and saddle him with a QO and then workout a deal to bring him back.
I’m not saying the Cubs should let Baez or Rizzo walk but not extending is a strategic decision.
The Cubs could do a mini-rebuild and still compete in the now watered down NL Central. Reds seem intent on moving a number of solid players despite them being pegged as a possible Cinderella team in 2020. Brewers never have more than one reliable SP at a time, and if they trade Josh Hader, the bullpen takes an enormous hit. Despite always being in contention, the Cardinals need outfielders and a replacement for Molina whom they don’t seem all that interested in re-signing. The Pirates? Sorry Buc fans, no words can describe the debacle they’ll be in 2021 no matter how many games MLB schedule.
The Cubs have the cheese to improve this team, and Cub fans ought to insist they do so. They can start by signing George Springer to play CF everyday and by adding any one of a number of decent starting pitchers on the market.
You’re right. That organization has been in complete 100% business mode since game 7 of the ‘16. They’ve avoided adding a dime in payroll (despite RECORD revenues) and every single move they’ve made since then has made them worse. Any other major market fanbase would be downright hostile, but the Cubs enjoy a sycophantic fanbase so there’s no accountability.
Is that a fact you just made up?
2016- 181 million
2017- 186 million
2018- 198 million
2019- 220 million
2020- 190 million
Also, again, you used a word incorrectly. Please use vocabulary that you understand.