The past six weeks have been a disaster for the Chicago Cubs.
On his Fair Territory podcast Monday, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal fielded a viewer question about the Cubs about whether or not it was time to “hit the panic button.”
“They have been, for the most part, a disappointment,” Rosenthal said. “I don’t know if panic is the right word, but they’ve got to be really concerned about where this season is going.”
With nine series losses in their last 10 matchups, the Cubs are at a crossroads. At 34-38, last place in the Central division, they are by no means out of playoff contention in a weak National League. But they also haven’t looked like a team with playoff capabilities and according to Rosenthal, that could ruin their plans of buying at the trade deadline.
“They thought they’d be buyers in the NL Central, they thought they’d be a prominent team in the NL Central, and right now they are not,” Rosenthal said.
There is little doubt that the Cubs intended to buy entering this season. They nabbed manager Craig Counsell from the division rival Milwaukee Brewers and made him baseball’s highest-paid manager. But they currently sit 8 1/2 games back of those Brewers, making a division title a pipe dream at this point.
The Cubs have been connected to Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in recent trade rumors. But they currently have a worse record than both of the teams those sluggers play for, the Toronto Blue Jays (34-36) and New York Mets (34-37).
At some point, general manager Jed Hoyer figures to grow wary of adding to his roster if the players already there aren’t good enough to contribute to a playoff effort. There’s still over a month before the trade deadline, but the time for the Cubs to prove they’re still in the hunt is already running out.
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