The dominoes began falling on the Cubs’ season as far back as December in Dallas, where the Baltimore Orioles approached general manager Jim Hendry at the winter meetings and asked if he had any interest in disgruntled shortstop Miguel Tejada.
The proposed deal that had Tejada and left-hander Erik Bedard coming to the Cubs for Mark Prior, Corey Patterson and prospects never got off the ground.
Once the suggested trade was leaked to reporters, an outcry from angry fans prompted Hendry to back off, leaving the Cubs with Plan C (unproven prospect Ronny Cedeno) at shortstop.
From that day on, the Cubs were doomed.
Tejada entered the final weekend of this season batting .331, and Bedard went 15-10 with a 3.67 ERA, establishing himself as one of the game’s top young left-handers. Prior went on the disabled list three times and finished with a 1-6 record and a 7.91 ERA in nine starts.
Prior might not have intended to sabotage the Cubs’ season when he arrived at spring training with a sore shoulder, but that’s what happened when he finally acknowledged he was hurt. He left the team with Plan C (unproven prospect Sean Marshall) at the back end of the rotation.
Prior also had nothing to do with injuries to Derrek Lee and Kerry Wood, or poor starts by Aramis Ramirez, Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones, or a disastrous season by closer Ryan Dempster. But the biggest mistake Hendry made this season was his first one: failing to find a way to trade Prior to Baltimore for two quality players who might have made a difference.
His second-biggest mistake was believing Prior when the oft-injured pitcher insisted he was healthy.
That is not a mistake Hendry can afford to make again.
Slippery slope
The dominoes fell heavily April 19 as Lee’s season in effect ended when he broke his wrist in Los Angeles. Ramirez was getting $11 million to pick up the slack, but he proved to be more of a slacker, running hard only when he felt like it. Ramirez eventually put up monster numbers, but only after the pressure was off.
Same for Pierre and Jones, who formed two-thirds of perhaps the weakest-armed outfield the Cubs ever have had.
Hendry had his worst season as GM yet earned an extension well before any of his moves were exposed. He decided to tender Patterson a contract Dec. 20 when he knew Patterson was not in his plans. If he had let Patterson become a free agent, he might have been embarrassed at the number of teams willing to take a risk on the raw but undeveloped prospect.
Hendry eventually dealt Patterson to Baltimore for two Class A prospects with little chance at advancement.
Patterson began the weekend hitting .278 with 44 steals and has shown signs of becoming the player the Cubs thought they had when they made him a first-round draft pick.
It was obvious last November that Wood, recovering from shoulder surgery, would not be ready for the start of this season, and pitching coach Larry Rothschild said, “If we sit here and say we’re going to depend on him going into spring training . . . it’s just stupid on our part.”
Yet Hendry did not search for another quality starter, saying in November, “It would have to be the right fit.”
The right “fit” turned out to be Plan C, another rehabilitating starter, Wade Miller, who wouldn’t make it to the mound until September, when the season was long over. A progression of rookies marched to the mound, with only one–Rich Hill–eventually showing some consistency.
Cedeno also failed to live up to expectations, and the addition of Cesar Izturis only ensured the Cubs of another light-hitting, power-free shortstop in 2007. Matt Murton and Ryan Theriot showed promise but not enough to be promised starting jobs next year.
Another mirage
Manager Dusty Baker took most of the heat this season, some of it deserved. His stubbornness became a liability, whether it was turning a blind eye to Ramirez’s lack of hustle, sticking with Dempster as his closer well past his sell-by date, refusing to sit Jones against left-handers or the inexplicable infatuation with infielder Neifi Perez.
Baker evidently never will change, so the next team that hires him must realize he will stick by his players through thick and thin, even if they take him and the team down with them.
It’s hard to remember now, but the season began with the promise of better things. In the home opener at Wrigley Field, the crowd of 40,869 went wild in the fourth inning when Pierre’s suicide-squeeze bunt hugged the line before rolling foul. The cheers continued even when the strategy didn’t work. At long last, something new was on display.
It turned out to be a mirage.
Soon enough, the Cubs reverted to losing in the most unusual fashion imaginable, looking like the hapless Cubs teams of the early 1960s or late ’70s.
“The Cubs always were known, as far as I was concerned, for not being a fundamentally sound team,” Baker said in spring training of 2004. “If you stayed close to them, they’ll do something to help you beat ’em.”
No matter who is at the helm, some things never change.
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psullivan@tribune.com
