Cubs year in quotes: Sound and fury from a tumultuous 2020

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When it came to doing everything they planned in 2020, the Cubs sometimes had trouble walking the walk.But during an historically strange 2020 they had plenty to talk about.And they had no trouble talking that talk.The Cubs’ long and winding 2020 in quotes:

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1/13

Players and fans alike felt the punishment MLB commissioner Rob Manfred handed the Astros for their sign-stealing scandal wasn’t enough. Some, including Yu Darvish, called for MLB to strip Houston’s 2017 World Series title.

Manfred responded to that idea in quite possibly the worst way.

“The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act,” Manfred said during a February interview with ESPN.

Although he later apologized for that comment, MLB players were pissed, as you’d expect — including the Cubs’ Kris Bryant and Jon Lester.

2/13

Like many players, Lester fumed after hearing Manfred’s comment, the three-time World Series champ ripping into the commissioner.

“You play for a reason,” Lester said. “You play for that piece of metal. I’m very proud of the three that I have. If that’s the way he feels, he needs to take his name off the trophy.”

For all the foot-in-mouth comments Manfred has made in his six years as commissioner, this is the one that will stick in the craws of those in the game he presides over.

“When you say something like that, I genuinely believe he really meant it was just a piece of metal,” Bryant said.

3/13

Prior to COVID-19 changing life as we know it, and prior to the sports shutting down for several months,  Darvish expressed concern over the coronavirus, the first big league player to do so publicly.

Darvish took extra precaution in the weeks and months leading up to baseball’s shutdown, canceling two media events this past January due to health concerns.

Ahead of spring training, Darvish expressed concern to a Cubs team official of foreign journalists potentially carrying the virus to Arizona. He missed a spring start in March after coming down with a cough, leading him to go to a doctor’s office, where he was tested and later cleared.

“If I have coronavirus or something like that and come into the clubhouse and spread it to everybody,” Darvish said in March, “that’s not good, right?”

Less than a week later, spring training was shut down. 

4/13

David Ross wasted no time in giving this answer when asked about the legitimacy of a title in a 60-game season.

Ross continued, "If they’re handing out rings and we’re all starting from the same point, I don’t care if it’s a five-game season.

"Everybody else can put something on it, but if we win the whole thing, I'll still get a ring and a trophy. I don't know what the parade would look like, but we'll adjust that when we get there."

The Cubs fell short of a title, losing to the Marlins in their first-round postseason series.  

5/13

Following his March concerns over the intensifying virus, Darvish made the “tough” decision to join his teammates for the 60-game sprint. But he entered summer training camp with those same concerns and was ready to go home, had the Cubs not taken things seriously.

“Definitely, I came here to make sure everybody’s doing the right thing,” Darvish said through a translator on July 12. “I had in my mind if they’re not, I was ready to go home.”

The Cubs proved to have the most effective protocols in baseball, with zero players testing positive for the virus from the start of summer camp through the end of the season.

6/13

Heyward was quick to snap back with that when asked about some fans’ sentiments that athletes shouldn’t speak out on real-life issues, even involving things as personal to some as racism and social injustice.

“When it comes to, ‘stick to sports,’ I wish I could, but there are so many times when I don’t have my uniform on that I’m treated like a Black man and not a baseball player,” Heyward said during his pregame Zoom media session on Opening Day.

Later in the season, Heyward would join the protest that swept across professional sports after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Heyward sat out of the Cubs’ game against the Tigers on Aug. 27, joining teams and individual athletes across the country in protest.

“I feel like I need to be a part of it,” said Heyward, a member of The Players Alliance, “or else I'm going back on my word.”

7/13

Even after their historic 13-3 start to the season, first baseman Anthony Rizzo knew the stakes were high for the Cubs in 2020.

With numerous players under club control through 2021, the clock has been ticking on the Cubs' core for some time. The team hasn’t reached contract extensions with the likes of Javy Báez, Kris Bryant, Rizzo and others, and trade rumors have popped up in recent years as we near 2021.

“This could be my last year here,” Rizzo continued. Who knows?”

Rizzo’s comments foreshadowed several big Cubs offseason moves. 

8/13

It was no secret Kris Bryant was having a rough year. He knew it. Cubs fans knew it.

Hobbled by injuries and limited at-bats in a shortened season, Bryant entered the last weekend of the regular season with a .195 batting average. He’d missed the previous four games with an oblique injury.

Then, in two games against the White Sox, he logged three hits and six RBIs. Two of those hits were home runs. One of those home runs was a grand slam.

Asked that weekend about the online criticism he’s received over the season, Bryant was quick to answer.

“I’m kind of over it,” he said. “I feel like sometimes I go out there and I could go 4-for-4, and it’s not good enough for some people. So I. Don’t. Give. A. S***. How about that?”

9/13

Upon saying those words, Theo Epstein — whose grandfather and great uncle did win an Oscar for the screenplay of “Casablanca” — launched into a long list of thank yous as he resigned from the organization one year ahead of plans.

“A small part of the equation as I looked at it is that some of the math is a little bit easier, is a little bit better position for the Cubs with me not being here,” Epstein said.

“But the primary driver is, look we’re in a period of transition. There are a lot of important decisions to be made that will have long-term consequences. Jed is ready, willing and able to make those decisions, along with our talented front office. That made the timing right.”

10/13

A few days after Epstein resigned as president of baseball operations, clearing the way for Jed Hoyer’s promotion, Hoyer addressed the media for the first time in his new position.

“When people talk about leadership styles, I think ultimately part of being a leader is being genuine,” he said. “I can't be someone I'm not. I can't try to act like Theo, I have to act like me.” 

Hoyer had worked alongside Epstein for the better part of two decades, first in Boston and then Chicago. But both Epstein and Hoyer made it clear that Hoyer would put his own stamp on the organization.

A little over a month onto the job, Hoyer has already made a pair of tough decisions that have begun to reshape the Cubs roster. He non-tendered Kyle Schwarber, and later traded Darvish, catcher Victor Caratini and cash to the Padres.

11/13

Longtime Cubs TV play-by-play man Len Kasper got emotional when he uttered those words in early December after leaving the Cubs for the White Sox radio booth.

Kasper, a Detroit area native, grew up listening to the Hall of Fame Tigers radio broadcaster.

“Ernie was the hero who became a mentor and a good friend," he said.

12/13

Hoyer responded with this one during December’s “virtual winter meetings” when talking about the widely held assumption that Bryant and his nearly $20 million projected contract will be traded before his final year of club control.

The Cubs manipulated Bryant’s service time in 2015 to assure control through 2021. So if Bryant does indeed open the season on the Cubs’ roster, Hoyer at least avoids the potential embarrassment of surrendering that final season in a salary dump.

13/13

Chairman Tom Ricketts uttered these words barely a month before the Cubs shipped out ace Darvish and his personal catcher to the Padres, freeing up $59 million in future salary obligation on the back end of Darvish’s contract — and signaling what sure looks like a tear-down.

Stay tuned for the first words of 2021.

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