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Sports

Column: Grading Jed Hoyer’s Chicago Cubs rebuild that can’t be referred to as a rebuild (sorry, Marquee)

In a rare media appearance last week, Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer said it would be impossible to fully evaluate last year’s sell-off until well down the road.“They’re probably going to be evaluated in 2027 for real, and I think that’s the way it should be,” Hoyer said of the flurry of trades. “I don’t think anyone should be looking at it as a passing grade at this point.”AdvertisementThat made perfect sense. Most of the top prospects Hoyer acquired in 2021 — from the Yu Darvish deal through the trade-deadline moves — will have made it to the Cubs by then or else been dealt or simply plateaued.But when Hoyer mentioned 2027, my first thought was whether I’d still be here to provide an opinion about whether he deserved a passing grade. Five years is a long time in this business, and admittedly I’m probably as old as Tony La Russa’s Sunday shoes.AdvertisementSo to get ahead of the curve, I decided to grade Hoyer’s sell-off now, knowing it would stand up well in 2027.Hoyer, of course, deserves an F.Excuse me, I meant an A.I just had what press box wags refer to as a “Marquee moment.”Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer speaks with reporters, April 7, 2022, before opening day at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)The Great Sell-Off of 2021 will live in Cubs infamy and ultimately be judged by whether it helped them meet their goal of winning another World Series in the not-too-distant future.We already know they couldn’t win another ring with Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez. The Cubs didn’t win another playoff game with the three stars after 2017, and they deserve part of the blame for that failure.We also don’t know whether the next group of prospects can win one. But that doesn’t seem to matter right now, which is why Hoyer deserves an A.Hoyer correctly assumed an inferior product on the field would not significantly affect ticket sales and reducing long-term contractual commitments was more important than competing in 2022.AdvertisementThe Cubs might have downsized payroll and lowered expectations, but they’re still averaging 31,673 fans per game at Wrigley Field, eighth in the majors entering Thursday’s games.Thousands of no-shows cut into concession and souvenir sales, and vendors say fans are not drinking as much beer with money so tight these days. But considering the team’s sub.-500 record, the mostly terrible spring weather and the lack of players to market aside from Willson Contreras and signees Marcus Stroman and Seiya Suzuki, the Cubs have to be satisfied with the crowd sizes.With warmer weather on the way and schools letting out, attendance should climb this summer. The star-studded White Sox, in contrast, rank 18th in attendance despite back-to-back playoff appearances.In spite of a 1.7% drop in average ticket price, the Cubs still rank fourth in the majors as $56.83, according to Team Marketing Report. In terms of Fan Cost Index, the Cubs are at $364.83 for a family of four, second highest behind the Boston Red Sox ($385.37). Going to Wrigley is still an expensive proposition during a rebuild that can’t be referred to as a rebuild.But in the short run, the Cubs haven’t suffered economically from putting a subpar product on the field. The season is going the way most expected when the roster was completed after the lockout, and Hoyer can sleep well knowing he doesn’t have any long-term, nine-digit contracts to worry about when Jason Heyward’s deal expires after 2023.On deck for Hoyer is another in a series of franchise-defining decisions: whether to keep or deal Contreras. If Contreras is dealt, the chances of contending seemingly would be prolonged by at least a year, perhaps two. If not, Hoyer risks losing Contreras to free agency after the season.AdvertisementChicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks (28) talks to catcher Willson Contreras after giving up a home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field on, May 20, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)Either way, we’ll soon get our first taste of the next wave when Triple-A Iowa starter Caleb Kilian, acquired in the Bryant deal, becomes the first of the “Summer of ’21 Babies” to make his Cubs debut.It won’t be next week, according to manager David Ross, but whenever it is, it figures to be quite a celebration, much like Rizzo’s Cubs debut on June 26, 2012.That event was preceded by TV commercials touting the big game and full-page newspaper ads hyping the WGN-Ch. 9 telecast. Now that the Cubs have their own network, they could make a full-length documentary on Kilian’s debut if warranted.Times have changed.The clock on Hoyer’s “next great Cubs team” unofficially begins with Kilian’s call-up, just as Bryant’s arrival on April 17, 2015, started the clock on the previous rebuild. With Kilian, Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson in the 2023 rotation, the Cubs can show modest improvement before potentially contending for a postseason berth in 2024.That would make 2025 the logical target date for Hoyer’s whatever-he-calls it, or one less year than Theo Epstein’s rebuild.AdvertisementChicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.As for now, Cubs fans are counting the days until the annual summer fire sale.They’re wondering who will go and who will stay but not obsessing as much as last summer when the Big Three were part of the daily conversation. They’ve learned to “embrace the suck,” as Joe Maddon once suggested in his ironic commentary on decades of low expectations on the North Side.But this time they really mean it.Plenty of Cubs teams have been irrelevant by Memorial Day. Somehow you managed to make it through the season. Remember, if you don’t have expectations, you can’t be disappointed. Just look at 2022 as a “Cubs Classic” season, like 1982 or 2012, and you’ll be OK.Factoring the legendary resilience of Cubs fans into the equation is why Hoyer deserves an F for the 2021 sell-off.Sorry, I meant an A.AdvertisementCan we edit this part out and start over?

Sports

Chicago White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel surrenders 6 runs in 2 innings in a 16-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox

Dallas Keuchel wanted to be the aggressor Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox.“It just seemed like I wasn’t able to get into a rhythm,” the Chicago White Sox starter said. “A few good pitches sprinkled in but a lot of pitches out over the plate and a couple of cutters that really didn’t get to the spot that I wanted to.”AdvertisementKeuchel allowed six runs on seven hits and lasted just two innings in a 16-7 loss to the Red Sox in front of 24,896 at Guaranteed Rate Field.“When he’s right, he’s giving up ground balls,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “Right away most of the balls are in the air (Thursday), which shows that at that point, movement wasn’t there. Location wasn’t there. (Thursday) when they start getting balls in the air, that means at that point, he’s not sharp.Advertisement“That’s not normal for him.”The White Sox dropped two of three in the series. In both losses, they gave up 16 runs and 19 hits.Andrew Vaughn had a monster night for the White Sox with a home run and a career-high five RBIs, but the Red Sox poured it on late — scoring nine runs in the final three innings — to pull away.“Good night or bad night, we didn’t come out on top,” Vaughn said. “That’s always going to sting.”Things didn’t go well early for the Sox either.Five of the first six Red Sox batters had hits in a three-run first starting, with Enrique Hernández hitting his second leadoff homer of the series.Trevor Story’s two-out, three-run homer in the second put the White Sox behind 6-0.Keuchel was out after two innings.Advertisement“I am feeling (like) myself, so that is a frustrating aspect of the last two starts,” Keuchel said. “I was really, really feeling like myself (May 8) in Boston and then against New York (May 14) at home, so to take a couple steps back (in the last two starts) is very frustrating.“I knew that they were going to be looking out over the plate, and just one of those things where the cutter, right now, has been the pitch that’s kind of snakebitten me, with (DJ) LeMahieu (hitting a grand slam in the second inning on May 21), then Story with the three-run homer tonight. It’s like five out of six pitches are really good and then the one that’s not really good is getting hit right now. I’ve got to do a better job of making sure I’m ahead in the count, the count’s in my favor, doing things that I normally do, then we can get back on track.”Leury García, Adam Engel and Tim Anderson singled to begin the third for the White Sox. Vaughn drove them all in with a double to right, cutting the deficit to 6-3.The Red Sox scored a run in the top of the fifth. Vaughn hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, making it 7-5.That’s as close as it would get.The Red Sox scored twice in the seventh and five more times in the eighth — including two when Bennett Sousa threw wildly to first on what should have been the third out — on the way to sending the White Sox back to .500 at 22-22.AdvertisementInfielder Josh Harrison allowed a two-run homer and had one strikeout in the ninth. It was his second career pitching appearance, with the other coming on Aug. 9, 2013 against the Colorado Rockies while with the Pittsburgh Pirates.Keuchel fell to 2-5 with a 7.88 ERA.“The most frustrating part is the guys behind me, two out of the last three days, they’ve had to wear a lot,” Keuchel said. “If we’re hoping to play 180 games this season, we don’t need that two out of the last three days. That was on me. (Lucas Giolito) did a really, really good job of limiting damage and flipping the count in his favor and getting some weak contact (in Wednesday’s 3-1 White Sox victory).“It’s frustrating for me for sure, but the most frustrating part is bullpen’s picking up seven innings. Guys behind me are wearing it and out there for four hours and a lot of hits and a lot of runs on the board.”Keuchel has allowed 12 runs on 13 hits with five walks and four strikeouts in six innings in his last two start.“I’ve got to do my job,” Keuchel said. “That’s first and foremost. If I don’t do my job, then I’m the first to admit you’ve got other options. I’ve afforded myself some leeway and I’m in no way shape or form out of this thing. It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster the first month and change and the second half of last year outside of a couple injuries.Advertisement“If people want to write me off, that’s OK. I’ve been written off before and I’m a competitor and I’m an athlete and we’ll turn the tide. It’s not the first time this is back-to-back starts this has happened. It can turn right back into our favor.”