Amid skid, Cubs take ‘solace’ in weak NL Central
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
CHICAGO — A recent 2-7 road trip left the Chicago Cubs six games under .500, but their manager is staying positive about their playoff hopes thanks to a weak NL Central.
“Thank goodness for the s—ty play of everybody in the division,” David Ross said with a smile Tuesday afternoon, before the Cubs (21-26) beat the visiting New York Mets 7-2 to begin a nine-game homestand.
Six games separate the five teams in the division, led by Milwaukee but with only a .542 winning percentage. With their win Tuesday, the Cubs are 4½ games back of the Brewers.
“The story of our season so far is we’ve struggled in high leverage situations, both offensively and pitching wise,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Tuesday. “We’re seventh in wOBA offensively, and seventh in wOBA from a pitching standpoint. That looks great. There’s only a couple teams that are in the top group in both but we’ve been really poor in high-leverage situations.
“That’s the reason our record isn’t flipped or even better.”
According to Fangraphs, the Cubs’ offense ranks 30th in MLB in offensive clutch rating with a -6.02 mark. For context, the Twins are 29th at -2.37 and the Padres are 28th at -1.68. Meanwhile, Chicago is tied for 28th in clutch rating for pitching.
“It’s a hard thing to put your finger on,” Hoyer said. “Is it pitch selection? Is it pitch execution? Is it putting the right people in the right place to succeed at the right time? Offensively, it’s the same thing. Are we swinging at the right pitches? Are we trying to do too much? It’s a hard thing to pull apart.”
Hoyer was asked about Ross’ comments regarding the division. In any of the other five — save the AL Central — the Cubs would be no less than 8½ games out of first place.
“Certainly, it’s great that no one is running away with the division but ultimately the standard has to be high and you have to build a team and win at every level,” Hoyer said. “You can take some solace in that [the weak division] but it ultimately doesn’t make me feel any better about our record.”
The Cubs hope to get a boost in the clubhouse and on the field when righty Kyle Hendricks (shoulder) returns to a big league mound for the first time in almost 11 months. That will happen at the end of the week.
Additionally, the team expects Cody Bellinger (knee) to be back soon while the offense rides the hot start (8 home runs in 11 games) of second-year infielder/outfielder Christopher Morel. But there may not be many answers or immediate help in a struggling bullpen — save righty Codi Heuer‘s (Tommy John) return. At the moment, the team doesn’t possess a clear-cut closer after the struggles of Michael Fulmer.
“If I’m being candid, I feel like I’ve put Rossy in a tough spot,” Hoyer said. “That’s an area [the pen] we’ve had so much success with. … We’ve done a good job of finding relievers that could come in and find high-leverage innings at a relatively low cost on one-year deals. We’ve been building bullpens like that for a while. This year that hasn’t worked yet. That’s on me.”
The Cubs are just 2-10 in one-run games, giving some context to an overall positive run differential despite a record well below .500. The team generally plays very good defense but it hasn’t made up for other areas which are subpar.
“We’re subject to the criticism,” Ross said. “We have to be better and play better … but we’ve always tried to take care of ourselves and when we’re buttoned-up and playing good, clean baseball and executing from pitch to pitch that’s the best version of us. We have to get back to that first and then worry about the division as we play better baseball.”
Hoyer understands the situation the team is in as Memorial Day approaches.
“It’s not early forever,” he said. “We need to bank some wins.”
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
Major League Baseball plans to address its uniform fiasco after changes this spring to the standard jerseys and pants led to widespread complaints from players and fans, according to a memo obtained Sunday night by ESPN.
The prominent modifications include a return to larger lettering on the back of jerseys, remedying mismatched gray tops and bottoms and addressing the new Nike jerseys’ propensity to collect sweat, according to the memo distributed to players by the MLB Players Association on Sunday.
The changes, which will happen at the latest by the beginning of the 2025 season, will also include fixes to the pants, widely panned this spring for being see-through.
The union informed players of the coming changes in a letter that placed the blame on Nike and the debut of its Vapor Premier uniform, which was advertised for its superior performance but remains disliked by players.
“This has been entirely a Nike issue,” the memo to players read. “At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.”
The union also absolved Fanatics, the manufacturer of the uniform that has received the majority of public scorn for the uniform mess, saying the company “recognizes the vital importance of soliciting Player feedback, obtaining Player buy-in and not being afraid to have difficult conversations about jerseys or trading cards. Our hope is that, moving forward, Nike will take a similar approach.”
While the new uniformed debuted at the 2023 All-Star Game, its rollout this spring led to reams of bad publicity. The shrinking of the letter size on players’ name plates gave jerseys an amateur look. The pants — which, according to the memo, will “return to the higher quality zipper used in 2023” — had myriad issues, including the see-through fabric, a lack of tailoring and rips and tears that players believed unnecessary.
Nike’s partnership with MLB began in 2019, when it took over as the league’s official uniform supplier as part of a 10-year, $1 billion deal for MLB. Fanatics has partnerships with the league and the union, both of which have invested in the company and own small stakes.
“We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants,” the union memo read. “MLB had been, and has been, aware of our concerns as well. Unfortunately, until recently Nike’s position has essentially boiled down to — ‘nothing to see here, Players will need to adjust.'”
MLB declined to comment. Nike did not offer immediate comment when reached by ESPN. Fanatics did not respond to a request for comment. The MLBPA declined to comment.
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Neil Paine
The first week-plus of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs has already provided much in the way of excitement and bone-crunching action. The average playoff game has featured 89.5 combined hits by both teams — nearly double the league average (45.5) from the regular season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
With so much chaos, there are plenty of teams that have exceeded — or fallen short of — expectations already.
For instance, the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights have been mighty impressive, taking a 2-1 lead over a Dallas Stars team that had led the league in goal differential during the regular season. But on the disappointing side, the Toronto Maple Leafs have fallen behind 3-1 in their series against the Boston Bruins, and the Los Angeles Kings are in a 3-1 hole versus the Edmonton Oilers.
Let’s run through the clubs that fit into each category, based on their playoff goal differentials as compared with what we’d expect from their pre-series power ratings and their opponent’s (adjusting for home-ice advantage). We’ll also highlight a player who has contributed to the state of his team, for good or bad, in the playoffs thus far.
We’ll start with the positive side of things. Here are three teams that have impressed the most:
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