(670 The Score) A crowded Wrigley Field represents so much to so many, baseball and romance soaked in sunshine and beer from the bleachers to the box seats, a time-tested image invigorating enough to spark a special memory or the slightest hope.
Welcome back to that reality, Chicago, with the ballpark gates at Clark and Addison swinging wide open Friday for the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic. Welcome back in full force to the place where dreams live and potential thrives. Cubs officials expect a crowd of at least 40,000 for an occasion that will include plenty of pomp and circumstance and the kind of bunting on the field everyone in baseball approves.
Consider it Reopening Day 2021 for the Cubs, its arrival coinciding with the need for everyone to reopen their minds to the possibilities for a team surprisingly atop the standings in the National League Central.
That means rethinking everything about these Cubs, because what they are barely resembles what most people thought they could be. That means reconsidering all the preconceived notions about Cubs stars in contract years and a future beyond the July 30 trade deadline. A roster that began taking shape with a $59-million salary dump last December suddenly looks deep and talented enough to make a playoff run in October with a few tweaks. A season that was supposed to be one of transition now seems capable of enhancing the Cubs’ post-2016 tradition. A chance to see where this is all headed is one Cubs manager David Ross and these players have earned.
Who are these guys anyway?
The Cubs won Wednesday's finale of the Padres series in San Diego thanks to key contributions from infielders Sergio Alcantara and Patrick Wisdom as well as relievers Rex Brothers and Ryan Tepera. Wisdom, the hottest hitter in baseball with eight home runs since being called up May 25, is a 29-year-old former first-round draft pick of the Cardinals with his fourth organization. Tepera, non-tendered by the Cubs last December, was the NL’s Reliever of the Month for May who keeps getting stronger. When Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer talked about threading the needle this season, he never could've envisioned stitching together this kind of success with so many discarded remnants.
Yet having as many as 12 different players spend time on the injured list has revealed the strength of the Cubs scouting department. Wisdom and Alcantara were pressed into action, for example, only because reserves Matt Duffy, David Bote and Nico Hoerner suffered injuries that interrupted their productive seasons. Duffy especially gave the Cubs a contact hitter in a lineup with too many swing-and-miss guys. And who would've guessed the Cubs would rely so heavily on veteran infielder Eric Sogard when he signed a minor league contract in March?
Ross, a natural at the job despite not yet managing a 162-game season, has started seven different players at second base. Surprisingly, that’s one position Kris Bryant hasn’t played – yet. Arguably, nobody in baseball has been more valuable to his team than Bryant, who has started at least seven games at five different positions while regaining his MVP-caliber hitting stroke at the plate. Bryant has been good enough to change the tenor of the conversation about him, from barrooms hopefully to the board room. Trading Bryant now before the trade deadline, with the Cubs on the cusp on contending, would qualify as professional negligence and risks leaving the type of legacy neither Hoyer nor Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts wants.
The ballpark opening up again Friday with the Cardinals in town should serve as a reminder that the revenue streams no longer are blocked either. The pandemic hit the Cubs as hard as any team in baseball financially – Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney estimated on 670 The Score that losses exceeded $100 million – but it’s hard to see how letting go of an asset like Bryant increases the franchise’s overall value over the next seven years. Wouldn’t it be worth a Cubs franchise currently valued at $3.3 billion, according to Forbes, investing around $250 million to keep a player like Bryant who represents everything right about the organization? If that’s the market rate for a player of Bryant’s caliber, the Cubs should be in a position to pay it.
It’s not that simple, of course, not with agent Scott Boras representing Bryant. Not with shortstop Javy Baez also facing free agency and seeking a massive deal. And first baseman Anthony Rizzo, celebrating a decade with the Cubs, running out of contract too. It cost the Padres $784 million to lock up their All-Star-caliber infield of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer, so the Cubs likely will need to invest nearly a half-billion dollars to keep Bryant, Baez and Rizzo in the same uniform.
That might not be financially feasible. But the Cubs at least have played well enough so far to redefine this season, so perhaps Ricketts rethinks another rebuild that fans and media should urge big-market teams to avoid.
The bustling in the neighborhood Friday morning will remind everybody this isn’t a team playing in Kansas City, Tampa Bay or Oakland, so the small-market mentality doesn’t apply here in Wrigleyville. Theo Epstein left the organization last fall, but his influence still casts a large shadow, and Epstein once famously said that every season was sacred. That resonates now, with the overachieving Cubs exceeding expectations in a winnable division. Their stars have enjoyed resurgent starts offensively, the role players have complemented them well, the bullpen has been surprisingly lethal with homegrown talent and the starting pitching staff somehow has achieved respectability. Give Ross credit too for pushing the right buttons at the right times and allowing a chippiness to develop clubhouse chemistry.
This Cubs team deserves the benefit of the doubt and a chance to finish what it started. The best runs are the ones nobody expects, which gives this one a special feel so far. If the Cubs swoon the rest of June – unlikely but possible given the schedule – then plenty of time remains to change course. But Hoyer, with Ricketts’ blessing, should adopt an aggressive mindset and immediately start searching for a top-of-the-rotation starter as reliable as the one he practically gave away to the Padres. Hoyer should say thanks but no thanks to any teams interested in Bryant, Baez, Rizzo or closer Craig Kimbrel, whose re-emergence is as significant as any factor this season. Hoyer should try to lock up catcher Willson Contreras, the other member of the Core Four position players, to a long-term deal.
The Cubs should identify themselves as buyers, not sellers, because with every passing day they look more like contenders than pretenders. So many of us thought that wasn’t going to be the case this summer and the season would serve a different purpose.
On Reopening Day at Wrigley Field, it’s time to revise the way we think about the Cubs in 2021 – especially for some people who work there.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.