Why the Cubs struggles this season can be traced back to the rebuild, and why they should approach this offseason with controlled abandon

2019 has been a frustrating season for the Chicago Cubs organization and fans. A complete inability to win on the road, coupled with mounting injuries to key personnel, and under-performing players have left many scratching their heads and searching for someone to blame.

Much of this blame has been directed at ownership (for not allowing more spending), management (for not signing the right players or signing the wrong ones), or at Joe Maddon (for not doing a better job of handling and motivating the roster). While some of these criticisms are well-earned, its not such a simple blame game. In reality, there is a much larger, underlying problem that is not the fault of any of the aforementioned persons, but is more just an unfortunate byproduct of past decisions.

There are two main issues that work hand-in-hand with one another, and they date back to the rebuild.

During the rebuild, the Cubs put a prime focus on acquiring young bats to populate the farm system. Through the draft, trades, and IFA signings, they were able to acquire some tier 1 talent. However, while these players were considered high potential, many of them were of similar archetypes (big time power coupled with high strikeouts). Fast forward to 2019, the Cubs lineup can mash, but they struggle to get on base consistently and have trouble getting hits when they need them. This approach wasn't a bad idea, especially since some of the prospects developing during this time were thought to eventually develop above average hit tools.

But unfortunately, that's not really how it all panned out.

Prospects like Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ still developed into solid players, but their hit tools never quite came around as expected. Coupled with someone like Albert Almora (who has never quite developed into the hitter that people had hoped), the Cubs have been left with a desperate need for more contact driven hitters (especially near the top of the order).

This hitter-heavy approach also had a secondary drawback to it:

Lack of an adequate in-house developed pitching pipeline.

From 2012-2017, here is the full list of the names inside the Cubs top 10 prospects that were pitchers:

Arodys Vizcaino (traded to Atl for Tommy La Stella)
Trey McNutt (never appeared in Majors)
Pierce Johnson (out of baseball)
Carl Edwards Jr. (traded to SD for Brad Wieck)
Duane Underwood (currently in AAA Iowa)
Dylan Cease (traded to CHW for Jose Quintana)
Oscar De La Cruz (currently in AA Tennessee)
Trevor Clifton (currently in AAA Iowa)
Jose Albertos (currently in A South Bend, forgotten how to throw strikes)
Adbert Alzolay (currently in AAA Iowa)
Alex Lange (traded to Det fro Nicholas Castellanos)
Brendon Little (currently in A+ Myrtle Beach)
Thomas Hatch (traded to Tor for David Phelps)
Justin Steele (currently in AA Tennessee)

This list not only highlights the lack of pitching depth the Cubs farm system had during this time period, but also the lack of quality arms. Such a void in this department forced the Cubs to seek external solutions to their pitching problems since 2016. This has also led to some of the financial constraints as well as the organization signed players like Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow to try and plug holes in the roster.

Now all of that being said, the Cubs have since addressed their pitching deficiencies on the farm, and that is something that could pay dividends in the coming seasons. There is still a lack of good contact hitters in the system, but there is some promise currently developing. Though, these both should continue to be addressed in the near future.

In reality, the Cubs struggles in 2019 (and 2018 really) are just a byproduct of the rebuild and winning the title in 2016. Certain areas may not have been focused on as much as they should have been, and other areas were made weaker by aggressive trades (see Aroldis Chapman and Jose Quintana deals; note: I am not re-litigating either of those trades. I actually still approve of both of them, but their effects can be felt).

So what should the Cubs do this offseason? Well I don't think any drastic changes are in order. The roster doesn't need to be blown up and we don't need 15 new faces showing up to Wrigley next season. But I do believe the Cubs need a slight change of course with their roster approach.

Currently, the roster is nothing more than the sum of its parts (actually even less so in some instances). The biggest problem facing the current 40-man roster is too much redundancy. For example, Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber have very similar hitting profiles as big time power bats with lots of Ks and BBs. By themselves, that's not a bad approach in this day and age. But combined with a rest of a lineup that is almost identical to that? Now that's a problem.

The same goes for the bullpen and rotation: plenty of guys who can get outs and perform admirably, but not a whole lot of power arms/guys with swing and miss stuff. Hence some (but not all) of the pitching woes and inconsistency observed during the last two seasons.

This offseason, the Cubs should find a way to reduce the redundancy on their roster by trading away duplicitous players for controllable pieces who fill specific roles (like top of the order, contact driven hitters with a little bit of pop). There are definitely deals that could be made with different teams who have what the Cubs need, and themselves want what the Cubs are selling. I plan on doing a much bigger piece on the offseason as a whole when it comes time, so I won't get into many specifics right now.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of baseball left to be played. I firmly believe the Cubs have enough talent on paper to make a playoff run, but the team this season hasn't been performing like it. We shall see how things pan out in the coming weeks.