The Chicago Cubs were in talks for most majors free agents last season, but missed out on almost everyone they were interested in. Did the moves they did end up making do enough to justify?
Seeing as though they are sitting at home during the World Series, likely not. Now that a year has gone by, they can be looked at under a new light.
Firing David Ross and hiring Craig Counsell
One of the biggest decisions made came when they decided to make a surprising swap at manager.
It’s not that moving on from Ross after three-straight years of not even making the Wild Card round was a shock. Moreso, that they were able to pry Counsell away from the bitter rival Milwaukee Brewers.
It’s hard to come up with a decision on a coach after just one year, but his first season ended with the same result as the one before.
Grade: C
Shota Imanaga
Imanaga was considered an afterthought in the free agency class that was loaded with star pitching talent.
He wasn’t the first choice for the Cubs, but ended up helping them stumble into one of baseball’s best pitchers this season.
There were some moments of worrying that he got figured out by big league hitter pretty quickly, but he steadied course and finished the year almost as good as he started it.
Overall, the 31-year-old rookie ended his year with a 2.91 ERA and just 1.021 WHIP over 173.1 innings of work.
Grade: A
Cody Bellinger extension
While it was a three-year deal on paper, most people expected this to end with Bellinger opting out in search of a longer term deal a season after.
After the former MVP failed to sway the market either way with a rocky but overall solid campaign, no decision has been made on his contract.
He wasn’t nearly as good as he was a year ago, but still had moments where he was ok.
Grade: C
Hector Neris
Neris surprisingly took over the role of closer at one point, but ended up being released in favor of younger pitching once it became clear what direction the season was headed.
Grade: B-
Trading for Michael Busch and Yency Almonte
Busch ended up actually being a bit of a breakout for Chicago, posting a .248/.335/.440 slashing line with 21 home runs and 65 RBI.
He likely played himself into a role in the future plans of the Cubs front office.
Almonte was also actually better on the mound than he was in year’s past, but had his season cut short after needing shoulder surgery in July.
Grade: B+
Garrett Cooper
Cooper is a weird case as he started out the season with a .271/.341/.432 slashing line but was shockingly cut out of nowhere shortly after.
He had almost no impact on the season, making him a failed signing despite not ever really playing poorly.
Grade: C-
Picking up Kyle Hendricks and Yan Gomes options
Chicago brought back a couple of clubhouse leaders, but both players ended up playing so poorly that the team had to stop using them.
Hendricks had a horrible start to the season that saw him boast a 10.16 ERA by the end of May. He ended up spending some time in the minors.
When he came back, he wasn’t as bad. He ended up perfroming ‘fine’ in the latter half but it wasn’t enough to make up.
Gomes was cut pretty quickly after starting the year with a .154/.179/.242 slashing line over 34 games.
Grade: F
Overall Grade
While Imanaga was a home run and Busch was another positive surprise the team didn’t do enough to end up pushing themselves back into the postseason conversation.
Most of the moves ended up not being a factor or were down right negatives. Overall, the team is in the same position following the year.
Grade: C
