There is nothing about th🧔is year quite as incoherent as the folks who scream that the Chicago Cubs ALWAYS INTENDED to sell in 2023.
Yes. Mmhmm. You definitely extend would-be free agents and sign hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-term free agent deals because you INTEND to sell.
The Cubs of 2023 are in line for a whole lot of fairly-earned criticism, but this particular strand – and how it’s used to rip on other fans – just bugs the heck out of me. On the one hand, I want to just let people fan however they want to fan, and if they want to be angry for reasons that are – to me – wholly irrational, who says it’s my job to police that? On the other hand, it literally is my job to talk about the Cubs and Cubs fandom, so when something sticks in my craw like this, I know it’s probably time to say something.
So, anyway, the criticism goes something like this: of course the Cubs always intended to sell this year, so you’re either a rube or a shill if you (1) talk about the Cubs trying to come back in the division and root for that outcome, or (2) talk about the Cubs hoping to justify buying at the deadline and root for that outcome.
I see this not infrequently after a Cubs loss this year – sometimes wrapped in barbs about me, personally – and it is the kind of nonsense that I cannot believe gets as much traction as it does.
Your argument is that the Cubs – among other things – spent over $400 million on *long-term deals* for four free agents the last two winters, AND extended Ian Happ RIGHT BEFORE his walk year (when he would’ve been a trade chip), all with the INTENTION of wasting those players so they could sell in 2023? That was the PLAN?
You don’t sign Dansby Swanson to a seven-year deal or Jameson Taillon to a four-year deal, much less extend a would-be trade chip like Happ, if your SOLE INTENTION is to just sell off at the deadline. There are much better and more effective ways to set up a sell, and we saw them in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2021, and arguably 2022. Buddy, if you think the Cubs were trying to tank this year, they sure did a terrible job of it. And it’s not like it’s difficult to sign Elvis Andrus to a one-year deal instead of signing Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million deal …
The Cubs TRIED to compete this year. They are STILL CURRENTLY TRYING to compete. It’s just that they are not doing a great job of it! (It’s particularly weird to claim that I’m being a shill when I say the Cubs wanted to win and wanted to buy … if they lose and sell, that means they didn’t accomplish what they wanted to do. It means they failed! This is actually more like a criticism of the Cubs, not a shill endorsement!)
There’s a huge difference between INTENDING to fail and intending to HAVE A CHANCE but FAILING. These Cubs, so far, intended to compete but have failed at that. I am mad about that failure, and I can point to things that could have or should have been done differently to better bolster this team coming into the season.
But if they get hot for the next two weeks and buy at the deadline, they’re clearly signaling that they still want to give themselves a chance. It doesn’t make you a rube or a shill to acknowledge the reality that they do want to win. It doesn’t mean you’re saying they’ve DONE ENOUGH to win. It doesn’t mean you’re APPROVING of every move they made or didn’t make. It means only that a clearheaded look at the moves this front office has made reveals that they wanted to give themselves a chance this year (and their expected wins total is way higher than their actual wins, just sayin’).
That, in turn, means that *IF* the Cubs can win a lot of games very quickly, then yes, the front office is going to buy. Again, you don’t have to think that outcome is likely (I don’t). But to suggest they never wanted to win, and to add that anyone who believes otherwise is a brainless bootlicker, is entirely unsupportable by the evidence. You’re just making stuff up because you’re angry about the results.
In other words, if you’re sitting there feeling more attracted to being bitter than to seeing what might happen this month, then I have nothing for you on this topic. I don’t plan to join you in irrationality just so that I can have company in the bitterness.
The Cubs are LIKELY to wind up selling later this month. That’s just the math at this point on where their record has led them, and it’s been the math – as I’ve said before – for a good long while now. But that die ain’t ENTIRELY cast yet, so pardon me if I’m gonna go ahead and keep rooting for a streak hot enough to give the front office a reason to buy.
C💖razy thing, I know. A Cubs fan who wants to see the Cubs win important games.
