The Chicago Cubs hitters sat in a circle in short left field at Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon and talked amongst themselves.
In a few hours, they’d take on the Philadelphia Phillies in front of a packed house on a gorgeous summer night.
If you closed your eyes a second and let your mind wander, you could picture the exact same scenario in a bygone era, with strength coach Tim Buss in the middle of the circle of trust, surrounded by Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Báez and the rest of the position players from the 2016 Cubs.
Time marches on. Players come and go. Only the ballpark remains the same, albeit with some new revenue streams to pad the owners’ pockets.
The 2016 Cubs were supposed to be a team that would stick around for a decade or so, winning a few more pennants and perhaps a couple more championships with a young core that was just starting to blossom together.
With the video boards and added signage and a new TV network on the horizon, the wheelbarrow full of cash would keep the Cubs a contender through the 2020s.
That didn’t happen, of course, and the beginning of the end came on Dec. 2, 2020, when Schwarber was non-tendered to save a few million dollars.
“It was a hard conversation,” Cubs President Jed Hoyer said that day. “I expressed we’d definitely keep the door open. We have and will talk to (agent) Casey Close about ways to bring him back.”
But the door was never really open. It was just a mirage.
The Cubs had laid off more than 100 employees in their baseball and business operations departments in the fall after the 2020 pandemic season, and they began payroll cuts with Schwarber and then the subsequent trade of ace Yu Darvish to the San Diego Padres.
Schwarber went on to sign a one-year, $10 million “prove it” deal with the Washington Nationals on Jan. 9, 2021. In 3 1/2 years since being let go for nothing in return, he’s hit 142 more home runs, including a league-leading 46 for the Phillies in 2022, and 47 in ’23, giving him 263 in his 10-year career.
Hoyer traded most of the other stars in the great summer sell-off of ’21, officially ending the era. And barring a complete reversal of form, the Cubs will miss the postseason this October for the fourth straight season under Hoyer’s guidance.
The Cubs began this last homestand before the All-Star break struggling to get back to .500 before the July 30 trade deadline, with the understanding Hoyer could go back into sell mode again if they fail to change course.
Schwarber, who is on the injured list and rehabbing from a groin injury, appears to be well on his way to his fourth straight postseason since leaving Chicago, serving mostly as designated hitter for the best team in baseball.
Looking at the shocking way it all ended, and where he eventually wound up, Schwarber can only be thankful for how things turned out.
“At the end of the day, you hate to say it, but there is a business aspect to baseball,” Schwarber told me outside the Phillies clubhouse Wednesday night. “Everyone always has their own philosophies and their own ways of how they view the way they want to do things.
“Luckily for me, I was here at a good time when we were pushing to win a championship. I’m not saying they’re not now. They definitely could be doing everything they think they should be doing. But for me, I’ve been fortunate to be on teams that have been that way.
“Even in Washington we were pushing in ’21 when we all got hurt, then I got traded to Boston, which made the playoffs, and here in Philly we’ve been to a World Series and (National League Championship Series) in two years. So I’m just grateful to be part of a team that keeps pushing for championships.”
Even before the 2024 season began, Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts told the players in spring training he was confident they’d win the National League Central. To go any further than that would’ve been a pipe dream.
But even without championship hopes, this Cubs team has been one of baseball’s biggest disappointments, which could lead to another sell-off, assuming Hoyer could unload some of the hefty contracts. Then we would find out if the much-hyped farm system is as good as the Cubs have advertised.
Meanwhile, Schwarber is happy being one of the vital cogs of a Philadelphia team with no glaring flaws. He’s 31 and has two young boys now, and hopes to play long enough for them to understand what he does when he’s away from home.
Almost every member of that 2016 championship team has made a return to Wrigley at least once, where they’re feted with a traditional video tribute and a standing ovation or three from Cubs fans.
Enough time has passed that some of those players are virtually ignored nowadays, as Pittsburgh’s Aroldis Chapman and San Francisco’s Jorge Soler were during recent trips to Wrigley. One of the fortunate ones has been Bryant, whose struggles with the Colorado Rockies were irrelevant to Cubs fans who saluted him in his first at-bat earlier this season.
The only two stars who haven’t had their Wrigley homecomings are Rizzo and Báez, who will be back later this summer. Báez’s Detroit Tigers arrive Aug. 20 for a three-game series, while Rizzo’s New York Yankees are here Sept. 6-8.
Schwarber said the wait would be worth it, and those two should get the best treatment of any of the 2016 Cubs.
“I was in the same (2014) draft with (Justin) Steele and (Dylan) Cease,” Schwarber said. “The way everything works out, it’s never how you expect it’s going to be in 10 years. For Rizz and Javy to come back here and get the welcome and the standing ovation they more than deserve, it’s going to be something for them.
“We did something really cool here, and had such great runs. Those are great memories and experiences that have helped me when I moved on to different teams. It’s cool to come back and see that people still talk about it.”
Until another team can replicate what the 2016 Cubs did, they’ll always be the one fans still talk about on warm summer days at Wrigley Field.
Just ask the 1985 Bears.
