It’s a good thing the Cubs celebrated the past this weekend at Wrigley Field — first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s return, third baseman Aramis Ramirez and right-hander Kerry Wood being inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame — because the current team gave fans little to cheer for over the weekend.
Third baseman Isaac Paredes’ line-drive single in the first inning to score the Cubs’ only two runs of the game in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Yankees (82-61).
Despite getting out-hit 6-3 by the Yankees, the Cubs mustered just enough runs to steal a game after being shut out in the previous two games.
The Cubs (73-70) acquired Paredes because he had three years of team control and could help the team this year and next. But Paredes has struggled in his brief Cubs tenure, slashing .167/.284/.275 with a .559 OPS. Getting him on track is one step in fixing the Cubs’ lackluster offense that scored just two runs in their weekend series against the Yankees.
“Even though he probably hasn’t had the results he’s wanted, he’s still had tough at-bats,” said starter Jameson Taillon, who threw six innings of one-run baseball. “He’s not a free out in the middle of the lineup, even if he’s not getting hits. We’re all well aware of how tough of an out he is and how good of a player he is.”
Adjusting to a team midseason can be challenging, especially when a player is adjusting to a new league.
“When you’re new somewhere, there’s a lot that goes into it,” Taillon said. “It’s added pressure. You’re in a new environment; you’re on a new team in the middle of the season. I can’t even imagine working with new hitting coaches, different game planning systems, analytics presented to you in a different way.”
After losing their three-game series against the Yankees, the Cubs saw their playoff odds take a drastic hit. Entering Sunday’s games, the Cubs had a 0.8% chance at clinching a wild-card spot.
The Cubs scored just two runs in their series against New York, continuing a trend of inconsistency that has followed the team all season. Figuring out which version of the Cubs offense is the actual version is a job that president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer will have to decide in the offseason.
“We’ve had these explosions,” Hoyer said Friday. “We were really good in April, then we struggled tremendously mightily for two months. This ballpark makes it that much more confusing to figure out. Depending on how you look at numbers, [the Cubs are] 28th in home offense and we’re top 10 in road offense. Some of that is probably randomness, and some of that is probably the fact that the wind is blowing in virtually every day this year. And I think that we have to take all those things into account.
“I don’t think you can really take all those things into account until the season’s over and we can really make those adjustments.”
But for the team to be firmly in the playoff hunt next year and not on the outskirts, they have to find a way to improve the offense, and getting Paredes on the right track for the season’s final month would solve one position for the front office.
“It’s a bit difficult,” Paredes said of joining the Cubs midseason. “But I believe we can adjust and honestly, I’ve faced difficult challenges and I am happy that I’m going through all of that to learn quicker and how to get out of them.”