most Cub fans , myself included , were willing to give the Rickets a 5 year honeymoon for winning a WS & making the park & immediate area a truly awesome place for any baseball fan to take in a game .
But since the 2022 season (post covid) , they have been a disaster . it’s time to get real about winning or get out of the game . there is just no excuse .
I can’t watch them anymore and haven’t since mid May when they started losing 2 outta 3 every series
The Ricketts set a budget (too low, but still $60-70 million higher than anyone else in the division), hire a President of Baseball Ops, and then get out of the way.
They kept Hendry on for a year as a lame duck largely due to the timing of the sale.
They were aggressive in getting Epstein and his first 5 year contract went about as well as it possibly could have. They got better every year and ended it by winning the WS.
They extended him 5 years and everybody was happy about that. The Cubs stagnated a bit, but still in the first 4 years of the contact they had 4 winning seasons, 3 playoff appearances and 2 division titles.
Epstein walked away with a year left on his contract and they promoted Hoyer from within. So, the question is, how much rope should the owners give Hoyer?
In year 1, they had a nice start to the season but collapsed right before the trade deadline. The thought was that the old guys were old and that Hoyer should be allowed to bring his own guys in.
In year 2, they started bad, but had a winning second half and the general thought was that there was improvement and the farm system looked more promising.
In year 3, they started bad, but rallied to a winning season, just missing the playoffs, and the general thought was, “Here we go.”
And now this dud of a season.
I think the Ricketts can always be criticized for not spending enough on the roster. But in terms of hiring/firing the President, they haven’t had much of a chance to show how they respond to an abject failure like this. If they rubber stamp this and bring back Hoyer (or God forbid, extend him!) then they wear this, too. But until then I’m reserving judgment.