Early in the first year of the Chicago Cubs rebuild in 2012, the team was in the throes of a 12-game losing streak that then-general manager Jed Hoyer said was “torture for all of us.”
Cubs fans knew it would be a long season, but watching the team lose on a daily basis for almost two weeks didn’t make things any easier.
“Sometimes, when you rip the scab off, there’s some pain until we grow some new skin,” then-President Theo Epstein said. “We’re going places. This is a tough road.”
Epstein and Hoyer delivered, though it took three grueling seasons before the misery finally ended.
And as the Cubs went into Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies with a .500 record and a nine-game losing streak, it might take another three years before they fully recover.
It’s no longer a question of whether the Cubs will be sellers or buyers before the July 30 trade deadline but how long it will take before the next rebuild turns the corner.
Watching the 2021 Cubs fall from first place to also-rans over the last two weeks has been a different form of torture.
Dale Sveum’s 2012 team never tried to pretend it was a contender. David Ross’ 2021 team lifted everyone’s hopes with a strong May and vaulted to 11 games over .500 after completing a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals on June 13.
But that turned out to be a mirage.
The Cubs went 4-15 over their next 19 games, hitting .184 and averaging 2.5 runs per game while the pitching staff posted a 4.96 ERA.
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So where does that leave them?
In position to rip off the scab again and grow some more skin.
Ross said before Monday’s game the “main focus” was on the Phillies, not the losing streak or the trade deadline.
“You start getting out and thinking narratives or contracts, trades or end of the season, losing the division, winning the division — all those things that can creep into your mind — it doesn’t do anything for us to beat the Phillies today,” he said.
Cubs players are fortunate to be in the Zoom era, with media confined to areas on the playing field before the game and not waiting for them in the clubhouse to try to decipher their state of mind. There was nothing much to say Monday, so they didn’t say anything.
There’s no need for team meetings or rah-rah speeches from Ross, who doesn’t like giving them anyway. Everyone knows what has happened — and what will happen in the next few weeks.
“I didn’t see this coming for sure,” Ross said. “This is kind of out of nowhere for this group. It’s also not out of the realm for us to roll off nine (wins) in a row as well.”
Well, OK.
Hoyer, now Epstein’s successor as team president, has 24 days to figure it out, but there seem to be only three options:
Ride it out with the Big 3 — Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez — and see what he can get for closer Craig Kimbrel, starting pitcher Zach Davies and some of the middle relievers.
Back up the truck and deal Kimbrel, Davies, catcher Willson Contreras and at least two of the Big 3 — likely Bryant and Báez.
Stay the course and hope the team can put together a second-half run with an easier schedule, knowing the first-place Milwaukee Brewers are bound to cool off.
Hoyer also can get creative.
How about dealing all unvaccinated players for half off their prorated contracts? Maybe trade Kimbrel, Andrew Chafin and Ryan Tepera as a matched set, giving a team a chance to solidify the seventh, eighth and ninth innings in one fell swoop? Or a once-in-a-lifetime Bryzzo package: Bryant and Rizzo for a bunch of prospects?
The sky is the limit for Hoyer, who has a chance to get a head start on a mini-rebuild that will begin a new era of Cubs baseball. The Cubs already let Nicholas Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber leave for nothing, and they dealt Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini for Davies and four low-level prospects we won’t see for years.
Castellanos, Schwarber and Darvish are National League All-Stars. The Cubs are still the Cubs.
Hoyer might as well start now and beat the rush, as the Cubs did in 2017 with the July 13 deal that sent Eloy Jiménez and Dylan Cease to the White Sox for José Quintana. Hopefully with better success.
Of course, the Cubs still have one last shot to turn things around, facing two underachieving teams during this homestand in the Phillies and Cardinals.
If they can’t get back on track this week, the white flag will be flying high.
So get a good look at your favorite Cubs now.
The last hurrah may be closer than you think.
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