(670 The Score) It was probably just a matter of time, and we knew it back in December when the Cubs decided they didn't want to pay ace Yu Darvish anymore. A half-season of mostly overachieving baseball had a way of pushing that to the back of our minds, but here we are.
The Cubs have skidded and stumbled to 10 consecutive losses that have dropped them to 42-43 and into third place in the NL Central, 8.5 games behind the surging Brewers. Any talk of this being still early -- that there are ultimately 162 games -- is merely a willful misunderstanding of what was at stake going in, considering the timing of the trade deadline and the contracts expiring.
The last three weeks have told the tale. The 2021 Cubs were only able to push through their headwinds for so long, some of them self-imposed and some just due to misfortune, but all of it enough to lay bare what's true about them.
This started before the Darvish salary dump, even, when Nick Castellanos was acquired in 2019 to rescue the latest iteration of broken offense. He did so almost on his own, raking at a clip of .321/.356/.646 over 225 plate appearances, but that wasn't enough for the Cubs to want to pay him a penny thereafter. Then came what chairman Tom Ricketts described as "biblical" losses in the pandemic and the choices to let Kyle Schwarber walk and dump both Darvish and Victor Caratini for prospects equivalent to a sack of magic beans.
Forced by budget constraints to roll out an underpowered starting staff, fill out a bullpen with upside hopes and see if a couple contact bats could steady the run production, it was chugging along mostly adorably until a wicked spate of injuries and an all-too-familiar hitting drought conspired to accelerate the construction of the next competitive phase, on whatever timeline it may be. And it may be what ownership prefers, regardless, because it costs less. At least the Cubs know in time to make the best of a developing seller's market, and it's a reasonable argument that it's better for it to happen earlier than later.
In movie terms, the last two weeks have switched the scripts. The invocations of "Major League" came easily, as we watched the Cubs lead the division despite what they lacked, seemingly defying an owner more than ready to find reasons to cut costs. Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel returned to their respective All-Star forms, there were more hits than misses among the bullpen hopefuls and the Cubs hit a high-water mark of 38-27 after sweeping the Cardinals on June 13.
They're 4-16 since, and now what's flickering on the screen is more reminiscent of "Gladiator," informed by greater context that gets back to Darvish.
That decision now feels equivalent to Emperor Commodus stabbing the gladiator Maximus before their climactic duel, making his opponent's efforts a doomed race against the mortal clock. Maximus won that day before expiring, however, a chance the Cubs likely won't have. Instead, trades loom that portend a closure to an era of contention.
We can ask the question about merely this first half of 2021 or the entire scope that spans back to 2015, the Theo Epstein plan coming together as it did even if it left us wanting more than just the one title, our memories tinged with just enough of what could've been to color what at such long last finally was.
Were we not entertained?
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter@Dan_Bernstein.