“I don’t want to sound like an asshole or anything, but we really haven’t done anything yet.” – Jon Lester
Lester’s words following his final start of the regular season on Saturday probably encapsulate the central question of being a Cubs fan in 2016. How success is determined is a different measure for the Cubs this year, and until this team wins the World Series, 100-win seasons and playoff appearances are only a temporary balm and probably just a tease. Lester has, after all, already been a part of one franchise to reach such great heights after nearly a century of coming just short, so his words this weekend captured a sentiment he’s felt before, and they’re probably worth heeding by his younger teammates.
And for however unpolished his words might be, he speaks well for how most fans in Chicago feel right now. This regular season has shown us greater peaks than we’ve seen in our lifetimes, but for as grand as this is, attempting to describe this season still feels like an impossible project. It’s simply unfinished. Maybe it’s best then to pause for now and consider the journey to at least this point while we wait for how this will all end.
It seems a faint memory now, but the Cubs are barely two years removed from the years of tanking, rebuilding, and gunning for high draft picks. Now they’re suddenly thrust into the role of a team whose superiority is largely inarguable. This came earlier than expected too, if you’ve followed The Plan closely. After all, they only won 73 games in 2014. So following the surprisingly successful 2015 campaign, the Cubs entered last winter laden with expectations; that weight has only grown heavier as the months have worn on.
But the Cubs shrugged off that weight almost effortlessly. They’ve lived up to the expectations, and then some. They won 103 games, something that has not been done by a Cubs team since the first decade of the 1900s. They finished the season with a 17.5 game lead in the division; in the end, that lead was never truly threatened. And they did it all with such ease that the regular season has inspired more feelings of ennui than excitement.
This is not to suggest, however, that the season has been neat and tidy. It was just days old when the Cubs lost Kyle Schwarber until 2017. The team wrestled with mortality for a stretch in late June and early July. Jason Heyward’s season-long slump at the plate was a catalyst for much angst. At the trade deadline, the acquisition of Aroldis Chapman left the organization and its fans to make peace—if they could—with the question of rooting for an individual player when his character is in question.
But when taken as a whole, some of those things seem small. The loss of Schwarber stings less when the catching triumvirate of Miguel Montero, David Ross, and Willson Contreras combines for a 30 HR, 100 RBI season. And Contreras and Jorge Soler filled the void at left field just fine. That “June Swoon” now looks laughable and maybe fans feel a little bit silly for being so concerned about it in the moment, and though Heyward’s lack of production at the plate has been there for the entire season, his sterling defense in right field covers some of that. The last question, the question of Chapman, has been answered at least in terms of how he’s done on the mound. For the rest of it, many Cubs fans could be forgiven for quietly (or openly) hoping that he’s not responsible for recording the final out.
There were exultant moments long before the games counted too, like when Dexter Fowler—the presumed Oriole—just showed up to spring training on February 25, ready to join the outfield. Or when Jake Arrieta threw his second career no-hitter in the third week of the season. Or David Ross reaching, and passing, the career milestone of 100 home runs to go with the season long celebration led by teammates Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. Or, speaking of Bryant, the night he went 5-for-5 with three home runs and two doubles on his way to a very likely National League MVP award at the end of the season. Or the surprising brilliance of Kyle Hendricks this season, who has been a worthy candidate for the National League Cy Young.
The Cubs capped off the 162 game portion of their season with fitting panache yesterday, as if to punctuate the regular season with an exclamation point rather than a meager period. Right as narratives about ending the season cold might have crept into the conversation this week, Matt Szczur and Miguel Montero silenced those squawks of doom.
And while all of this is wonderful, Jon Lester is probably right.
He’s right because what has felt like a six month dress rehearsal is officially over. And however the regular season might have felt like it was punctuated in the moment, it was always just going to be a comma. It’s rare in any sport when a team can not only enter the season with such elevated expectations but go on to meet them, but we’re seeing that with the Cubs of 2016. It’s an historic season regardless of how it finishes, though it’s been known since late February that this campaign will be known and remembered only for how it finishes. The youthfulness and surprising aptitude of the 2015 Cubs is gone, and we have been left since with only expectations of grandeur. Now, with October finally here and the postseason just days away, it feels like the Cubs have arrived at the stage they were meant for.
Lead photo courtesy Dennis Wierzbicki—USA Today Sports.
Also worth nothing is that the Cubs never lost more than 2 in a row after the All-Star Break.
Oops. I meant “noting.”