When the Cincinnati Reds dominated the season series against the Chicago Cubs in 2019, it was an upset to say the last. If/when it happens in 2020, it won’t surprising at all. While Nick Castellanos was widely-expected to be a rent a player in 2019, the positive impact he had on the team, both tangibly and intangibly, should have made re-signing him a priority.
He’s the doubles machine of all doubles machines, and his uplifting effect on the club house is difficult to quantify. The Cubs letting him in go is one thing. Letting him go to a NL Central division rival is another. Letting him go, to a rival, and doing nothing to replace him is another animal entirely.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1221091036308692993
When you stand still, in reality you’re actually falling behind and that’s exactly what the Cubs are doing for the second straight off-season. When you’re starting from a position of third place in the division, it’s even more problematic. The Reds are probably the only team in the division that really made a lot of noise this winter, but their offseason augmentation is extremely notable.
You can sufficiently say that they have passed the Cubs up now in the division power rankings; joining the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers.
Earlier this winter, whenever you saw a prediction model picking the Cubs to finish only .500 or just a couple games above, it came off as potentially bold, and likely proven to be wrong.
Now, after everything that hasn’t happened with the team, and everything that has happened with those around them, those kinds of models might just be spot on. Cubs President Theo Epstein says he wants to make improvements, but “obstacles” stand in the way.
The obstacle is obviously his bosses above him, whom are utterly clueless about the current temperature of the fan base right now, and Ricketts made that obvious at the Cubs Convention 10 days ago. But hey! Marquee Network! Call your cable company and demand it! Get on it!
*sarcasm font*
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.