Anthony Rizzo’s Return To, Departure From Wrigley Provide Somber Reminder: Not Much Has Changed

Remember when the Cubs were good? Like, not just “a few games above .500” good, but really, genuinely good? Good enough to win the division and 100 games in the regular season? Good enough to make it to the National League Championship Series year after year? Good enough, even, to win the one thing everyone who loves this sport truly wants?

Moral victories exist in sports. Even the best franchises go through down seasons. Each of the stars the Cubs dealt in 2021 have failed to live up the lucrative contracts they signed in the ensuing years.

Whatever platitude you whisper to yourself to sleep easier at night, though, there’s not many positives to take away from the weekend series against the New York Yankees. The Cubs salvaged a hunk of the three-game set with a 2-1 win on Sunday, but they fell further behind the Mets and Braves in the Wild Card race by dropping the first two games of the series. Now five games out of the final playoff spot and with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies looming on the schedule, the season is down to its final gasp for Chicago.

The Cubs’ “recovering” lineup averaged 0.67 runs per game against the Yankees. From Aug. 16 to Sept. 4, the Cubs went 13-5, culminating in the Shota Imanaga-led no hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. While that was a strong run, it wasn’t exactly impressive. Their opponents during that stretch, in order, were: the Blue Jays (last in the AL East), the Tigers (4th in the AL Central), the Marlins (last in the NL East), the Pirates (last in the NL Central), the Nationals (4th in the NL East), and the Pirates again. They took care of business, sure, but that 18-game window was bookended by a sweep against the Guardians (1st in the AL Central) and the series loss to the Yankees (1st in the AL East).

When the Cubs chose to trade away their World Series heroes just over three years ago, it was under the guise of a more promising future. That core had run its course, and it was better to commit to rebuilding rather than trying to recapture the glory days. I’m not going to make a definitive statement on that. The farm system is loaded, and better times may be ahead. This is merely an obituary on a 2024 season that never really got off the ground.

Things began according to plan, as the Cubs were 18-12 on May 1. They then went 21-34 during May and June, practically negating their 31-20 stretch during the dog days of July and August. Now, following a series loss to the very Yankees team Rizzo was dealt to, one thing has become increasingly obvious: the rebuild that began when Rizzo and his championship-winning brethren were traded away is still ongoing.

You can argue that baseball - or anything in life, for that matter - doesn't exist on a binary scale; even in a sea of negatives, you can always find positive takeaways. And while that is true, what is also true is that these Cubs simply aren't built for the playoffs. They're not good enough to play with the top dogs of this sport we love so much. They weren't good enough last year, when they collapsed in September; and they weren't good enough this year, when they were so bad in May and June that a late-season collapse wasn't necessary.

Rizzo went just 2-for-10 in the batter’s box this series. He’s been worth -0.5 WAR in what’s been a lost season. By every notable measure, he’s been worse than Cubs first baseman Michael Busch, who has cemented himself as the future at the cold corner. Keeping him, or Kris Bryant, or Javier Báez, or Yu Darvish, or Kyle Schwarber, or anyone from that team, probably wouldn’t have changed the team’s fate. In all likelihood, the Cubs are better off now, because they made the difficult decision to set dynamite at the feet of their waning championship roster. That doesn't change the fact that this season is all but over for the North Siders.

Rizzo’s return to Wrigley was celebratory because of the sentimentality behind it. It was joyous to see the ostensible face of the franchise from the curse-busting roster finally come back home. But now, he’s left to go back to his new home in New York. Just like the last time he left for the Big Apple, the immediate feeling is the same: the Cubs’ season is over. All that’s changed is the names on the backs of the jerseys. And, of course, three years have passed the Cubs by.