MIAMI — The Chicago Cubs are a franchise caught in the middle as kids head back to school, the Bears grab the spotlight and the 2024 season crawls to its much-anticipated conclusion.
Even after Friday’s 6-3 win over the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park, they’re not far enough out of the National League wild-card race to officially cash it in but not close enough to pretend that anything short of a miracle is necessary to make the postseason, trailing the Atlanta Braves by 5½ games for the third wild-card spot.
They have star quality players such as Dansby Swanson and Cody Bellinger but no one that makes you want to stop what you’re doing to watch them.
They talked in spring training about their farm system’s rise to No. 2 in the MLB Pipeline rankings, but the only prospect to see regular playing time this season is Pete Crow-Armstrong, a strong defender whose hitting remains a work in progress.
But Crow-Armstrong’s progress is one of the few bright spots left. He hit an inside-the-park home run in the third inning Friday in the opener, igniting a three-run inning on a ball that deflected off the right-field wall.
Crow-Armstrong said he and third-base coach Willie Harris talked about the possibility of doing it “a fair amount” at Wrigley on balls off the wall.
“Willie and I were on same page,” he said. “When I saw the ball kick, I started running, because at that point the ball is already behind me. I’m better off putting my head down and going anyways.”
Crow-Armstrong said his first professional home run in the minors was an inside-the-park job, but that was his only one.
“It’s one of those plays where you’re hoping Willie sends him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Everybody wanted to see it happen in the stadium. They completed the relay really well and made it close. It was fun to watch.”
The Cubs took the lead on Isaac Parades’ RBI double in the eighth inning, and Miguel Amaya added a two-run homer in the ninth, leaving them one game under .500 at 64-65. The bullpen contributed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Kyle Hendricks, who allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings.
“Glad I stayed with it mentally, grinded it out,” Hendricks said. “At least gave us a chance, and the boys came up huge in there in the end. The bullpen is so fun to watch. We’ve got so many guys throwing the ball well now.”
With Crow-Armstrong, Bellinger and Ian Happ in the outfield, the Cubs don’t have any available spots for their top two outfield prospects — Kevin Alcantara and Owen Caissie — to get a real opportunity in September to prove they’re capable of earning a spot in 2025.
“We’re going to have to get to September first, and then we’ll see what the roster (looks like),” Counsell said. “The way we’re constructed now and what’s going on now, there isn’t a big spot for someone to fill a role, really. It’s been a really consistent lineup here, and our bullpen is pitching well, the starters are a little bit set, so there’s not much from that perspective.”
So there is no real mystery left in this season. Keep watching at your own peril.
Even if the Cubs officially fall out of contention after this nine-game trip to Miami, Pittsburgh and Washington, the same basic lineup will be trotted out over and over down the stretch. If the Cubs somehow make it back into the race and fall short, it would be as disappointing as last year’s ending.
Without much for fans to look forward to, the guessing game over which players will make it to the finish line already has begun.
David Bote was the latest subtraction, to no one’s surprise, following ineffective closer Héctor Neris out the door. The Cubs on Friday designated Bote for assignment, waving goodbye to a player who won over management but never lived up to early expectations.
Taking his place was Triple-A Iowa infielder Luis Vázquez, whom Counsell said would maintain a bench role with some starts here and there. The Cubs also claimed reliever Gavin Hollowell off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks and optioned him to Iowa. Hollowell, 26, has a 6.20 ERA in 32 career games in 2023 and ’24.
Bote’s big moment with the Cubs on Aug. 12, 2018 — the walk-off grand slam against the Washington Nationals — helped him get a five-year, $15 million deal in April 2019 before he was arbitration-eligible.
“The contract works very well for us if he just stays in the role that he’s in now,” then-President Theo Epstein said. “And if he exceeds it, it could represent some value for us.”
There was no value to be found, as the Cubs soon discovered.
Bote spent most of 2022 and all of ‘23 in Iowa after President Jed Hoyer decided it was better to basically eat the contract by leaving him in the minors instead of using him off the bench behind Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal or any other third baseman.
Bote hit well off the bench this season after being called up in early June following Madrigal’s demotion and becoming the late-inning defensive replacement for Christopher Morel. But that ended when Morel was sent to the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline for Isaac Paredes, making Bote virtually disappear.
In the five years since the contract extension began in 2020, Bote hit .220 with a .666 OPS in 220 major-league games. The Cubs have made much bigger mistakes, financially speaking, but Bote’s deal stood out because it came so quickly in his career — and because none of the team’s big stars was awarded extensions.
The Cubs had a $7 million option on Bote for 2025 and $7.6 million for 2026, with a $1 million buyout. Obviously he was a goner after this season.
“Look, David has been with the organization a long time, 13 years,” Counsell said. “There’s a chance he still remains with the organization, for sure. He was thankful for the opportunity after a couple years in the minor leagues.”
Hoyer told WSCR-AM 670 last week that the Cubs expect to be over the luxury tax in 2024 with the signing of Bellinger in February. That suggests they might have to pare payroll in 2025 to avoid the 30% tax-rate hit on consecutive years over the threshold, which increases from $237 million to $241 million next season. The penalty is reset if they go below the threshold for a season.
Meanwhile, Hendricks took the mound Friday to start what could be considered a do-or-die trip for the Cubs. Even Counsell, who makes a habit of saying he’s taking it day by day, couldn’t deny the obvious.
“On a nine-game road trip with how many games we have left, we’ve got to play well enough to keep ourselves in this,” he said. “We still don’t have margin for error, so a poor trip certainly would make this very difficult. … Winning series is a way to keep yourselves in it, so we’ve got to keep doing that.”
