It took the Chicago Cubs about two weeks to take control of the NL Central Division after trailing the Milwaukee Brewers by 5.5 entering the All-Star break. They now have a 2.5 game lead and have solidified every spot on their roster following the acquisitions of Jose Quintana, Justin Wilson and Alex Avila. However, Theo Epstein admitted before that the team wasn’t ruling anything out in terms of the trade deadline and prior to Tuesday’s 16-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks he revealed how close the Cubs were to becoming sellers in the trade market.
Yes, the reigning World Series champions were on the verge of being sellers, but really it shows more how the Cubs felt about their competition. Remember, the Cubs played awful up until the All-Star break and were 5.5 games back with a 43-45 record. The starting pitching was bad. The offense was bad. Some fans wanted them to start trading a few of their veterans before the All-Star break, when the Cubs were only 2-3 games out in the division race.
Well, Epstein admitted they were getting prepared to do just that if the Cubs fell behind almost 10 games back.
Via CSN Chicago:
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“If we had fallen eight, nine out, we would have certainly been looking at considering moving some of the players who were rentals,” Epstein revealed Tuesday at Wrigley Field. “But we immediately played great out of the stretch and didn’t have to head down that road, which you honestly never want to go down.”
-Theo Epstein
Normally those fans would actually be right about the Cubs trying to get some value for guys like Wade Davis, or Jon Jay, Jake Arrieta and so on, because I remember Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies discussing how since the divisional era only four teams trailing by five or more games at the All-Star break came back to win their division. Yet, fans were acting like the Cubs didn’t have talent and that they were actually bad, not the correct outlook that they were simply playing poorly and underachieving.
So, Theo was actually giving the Cubs a long leash here, giving them the room to still lose more games in the standings before considering making moves the other way. Yeah, pretty safe to say they didn’t think the Brewers were going to be much of a threat despite their 5.5 game lead two weeks ago.
As expected, the Cubs finally got on a roll and came out killing teams in the second half. They’re now 57-48, going 14-3 since the break and it all starts with the starting pitching. Overall, the Cubs have the second best ERA in the second half behind the Los Angeles Dodgers at 2.98.
The Brewers didn’t make any big moves, while the Cubs added a starter, a veteran catcher and a set-up man. The Pittsburgh Pirates were hot for a week, but they’re now 6.5 games back and the St. Louis Cardinals don’t know what direction to take and have a horrible manager.
Thank you for being awful, NL Central Division, signed Cubs fans.
