Asked about team president Theo Epstein’s 2019 “year of reckoning” in the context of the final weeks of the season, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo wanted clarification.
“What do you mean, ‘year of reckoning,’?” he said.
Of course, that’s the gone-viral reference to the organization’s shift last winter from patience with some of the young hitting core to a results-based evaluation as it leaned harder on internal improvement in the face of severe payroll limits.
“This year is really a reckoning in a lot of ways,” Epstein said five weeks after the Cubs’ bitter elimination in back-to-back losses at home to the Brewers in a division tiebreaker and Rockies in the wild-card game.
The comment has been parsed, rehashed and affixed to this team like a flashing red light since he uttered the words.
Maybe it’s not the worst thing for the Cubs that Rizzo hasn’t paid attention to such flashing lights as he tries to play baseball and reach the playoffs for a fifth consecutive year.
But as the Cubs open their final 24-game stretch with a big four-game series in Milwaukee this weekend, that light is going to get harder to ignore – signaling changes that almost certainly will include a fan favorite or two and possibly the most successful manager in franchise history.
“The most important thing is just winning,” said Rizzo, whose team has won six of eight games – but trails the Cardinals in the National League Central and holds a slim lead over the Phillies for the final wild-card spot.
“I think winning kind of cures everything and silences all the outside noise.”
The Cubs seem to have a favorable schedule compared to the Cardinals and some of their other rivals for playoff position – with 13 of their final 24 against losing teams and seven meetings with the Cards in the final 10 days.
But will a playoff berth, another division championship, or even a division-series victory make a difference after five months of treading water. Forget the outside noise: is there enough time for winning to change any of the internal conversations – and/or potential decisions – that have been ongoing?
“I believe they’re going to wait until after the season ends to really evaluate everything,” Rizzo said. “I know every day you’re being evaluated. But I think the way this organization works, they’ll take time right away after the season to dissect and make the right decisions and not act [rashly].”
That could put a handful of players and manager Joe Maddon at a career crossroads moment the rest of the month.
“That’s just a logical dialogue right now based on what had been said before the season began and what’s going on,” Maddon said. “I totally get it. But I can’t and I don’t worry about it.
“If you’re worried about outside things out of your control, the result’s not going to be good.”
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Maddon’s best managing job of his career might have come during the last 11 months of baseball with the Cubs – including getting 95 wins last year from a team that got nothing from two rotation free agent whiffs and half a season from its free agent closer.
This year he’s had every starting pitcher except Jose Quintana miss time with injuries, gone four months without his best leadoff option (Ben Zobrist) because of marital issues, and managed a revolving door of a bullpen that went nearly a calendar year without a closer until Craig Kimbrel was added to the roster at the end of June.
Even now, former MVP Kris Bryant and former MVP runner-up Javy Baez remain game-day decisions into Thursday’s series opener.
Maddon said he has no idea what the front office’s move will be regarding his expiring contract after the season – and isn’t thinking about it.
Through mixed messages from the front office that have ranged publicly from cryptic to silence, Maddon is focused only on the Brewers, and then the Padres, and, eventually, another October.
“And I do expect a good result,” he said.
