Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts apologized to fans for a disappointing season, but also made excuses.
Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer is under pressure to produce. The Cubs ponied up to give Craig Counsell the richest managerial contract in baseball history last winter only to miss the playoffs altogether. David Ross could’ve accomplished the same feat, and that is not a compliment.
As is the case with every team that fails to meet expectations, the Cubs front office sent a letter to the fanbase apologizing for the lack of results. Chicago finished double-digit games back of the Milwaukee Brewers, Counsell’s former team, in the NL Central. Chicago has a lot of questions to answer this winter, but in order to move forward, they first had to acknowledge their own mistakes. Cubs owner Tom Ricketts made it clear they expect more in 2025, but was also full of excuses.
“Cubs fans, there is no way to sugarcoat it – this is not where we planned to finish the season. Like our fans, we had high expectations for our team this year and early victories delivered hope for postseason baseball. But inconsistent play and injuries upended that promise, leading us into a hole too deep to recover from despite another second half surge. Bottom line, we did not play a complete season of competitive baseball. As a result, we have again missed the most exciting and exhilarating month of the season – October,” Ricketts wrote.
Tom Ricketts insults Cubs fans with end-of-season letter
If I were a Cubs fan (I am not), this letter would insult me for several reasons. First, every MLB team deals with injuries. Look no further than the Atlanta Braves, which still made the postseason despite missing the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider for the season! Second, that is the first paragraph. Ricketts dove right into his laundry list of excuses from the jump.
Cubs fans watched this team all season long. Sure, they had injuries, but Chicago also failed to produce a capable on-field product, all the way from the lineup to the bullpen.
“The work is underway to close the gap to make the Cubs a perennial playoff team. Our baseball operations staff is redoubling its efforts to build a team that consistently plays in the postseason and delivers the promise of sustained success to Cubs fans,” Ricketts continued.
Close the gap? In a sense, Ricketts is not promising a playoff team in 2025, but merely promising to lessen the deficit. Again, that deficit was 10 games!
