October 15, 2018 • Daily Herald, Cubs facing several key issues this off-season https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20181013/cubs-facing-several-key-issues-this-off-season • The Athletic, Cub o’ coffee: Time for some exit interviews (infield edition) https://theathletic.com/590449/2018/10/15/cub-o-coffee-time-for-some-exit-interviews-infield- edition/ • The Athletic, Cubs roundtable: Four pressing questions for Chicago’s favorite NL wild-card losing team https://theathletic.com/587544/2018/10/14/cubs-roundtable-four-pressing-questions-for-chicagos- favorite-nl-wild-card-losing-team/ • The Athletic, Thoughts on the next hitting coach and where the Cubs go from here https://theathletic.com/586874/2018/10/12/thoughts-on-the-next-hitting-coach-and-where-the- cubs-go-from-here/ • Chicago Tribune, 5 potential candidates to be the Cubs' next hitting coach http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-hitting-coach-candidates- 20181012-story.html -- Daily Herald Cubs facing several key issues this off-season By Bruce Miles If there's any upside for the Chicago Cubs in getting knocked out of the playoffs early, it's that team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer have plenty of time to plan their off-season. There is plenty to do and a lot to decide. Players may become free agents one day after the World Series ends. No doubt Epstein and Hoyer will be active in both the free-agent and trade markets. Here are some of the key issues and the key names. The offense: There's no understating just how far the Cubs' offense fell in the second half of the season. Epstein's frustration, disappointment and even anger were quite apparent during his postseason news conference. And just over a week later, hitting coach Chili Davis was fired after one season on the job. At the all-star break, the Cubs led the National League in runs scored, batting average, on-base percentage and OPS. They were the only NL team with a triple-digit run differential (plus-114). At season's end, the Cubs were still first in batting average. They were second in OBP, but they had fallen to fourth in runs scored and to fifth in OPS. They were 11th in home runs. How to remedy it: The two most attractive free-agents-to-be on the market will be Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper and Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado. The Cubs have money to spend. They'll be conscious of going over the luxury-tax threshold, but that won't be a deal breaker if Epstein and Hoyer feel they can land one of these players. What that might mean: If the Cubs were to land a big-tag free agent, they'd have to move some players, either around the diamond or out the door. Any of Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ or Albert Almora Jr. could wind up being trade bait this off-season. Schwarber would be an attractive DH option for an American League team even though his defense in left field was more than acceptable. He had a batting line of .238/.356/.467 for a solid .823 OPS and solid OPS-plus of 115. Shortstop Addison Russell will begin the season under suspension under the terms of Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy. The Cubs may seek to trade him, but his value may be at an all-time low. The Heyward question: For the past two springs, a big topic was how much "better" outfielder Jason Heyward was going to be after working with hitting coach John Mallee in 2017 and Davis in 2018. Truth be told, Heyward was only marginally better in '17 than he was during his offensively poor 2016 and in '18 over '17. This year, he went .270/.335/.395 for an OPS of .731 and a paltry OPS-plus of 92 (where 100 is league average). During his postseason news conference last year, Epstein talked of getting Heyward back to being a 6-win player, as in wins above replacement (WAR). Heyward was only a 2.0 this year after going 1.0 in both 2016 and 2017. He has completed three seasons of his eight-year, $184 million contract. His full no-trade protection has expired -- he may block deals to 12 teams over the next two years. If the Cubs could find a taker and even pick up some of the money, they'd certainly consider moving Heyward. What to do with Hamels: Left-hander Cole Hamels was a godsend to the Cubs' starting rotation when they obtained him in a July trade with Texas. With Tyler Chatwood unable to find the strike zone and Yu Darvish gone for most of the season with injury, the Cubs were desperate for some stability and effectiveness. Hamels gave them all of that, plus large doses of professionalism. With the Cubs, he went 4-3 with a 2.35 ERA and a WHIP of 1.10. He also tossed Cubs' only complete game of the season. There is a $20 million club option on Hamels for 2019. Epstein stated his desire to explore bringing Hamels back. It would serve the Cubs well to pick up the option or pay the $6 million buyout and perhaps work out a two-year deal. -- The Athletic Cub o’ coffee: Time for some exit interviews (infield edition) By Andy Dolan It would be rude of me to deprive you of your Monday morning ritual just because the Cubs have crapped out of the playoffs earlier than at any other time since this column’s debut in April 2016. This offseason figures to have no shortage of news, and the Cubs got a jump start on it by firing hitting coach Chili Davis under cover of darkness (and a news release) last week. So let’s kick things off by taking a look at the nine different infielders who played for the Cubs this past season. Anthony Rizzo: He wasn’t just a lockdown late-inning relief pitcher, you know. Rizzo got off to a horrendous start, and on April 30 he finished the day hitting a woeful .149/.259/.189 with a homer and nine RBIs to go with only four walks against 15 strikeouts. The only thing that salvaged his on-base average at all was that opposing pitchers apparently took pity on him by hitting him seven times. That .189 slugging seems almost unbelievable. He went on the disabled list after the sixth game of the season with a bad back and had only one extra-base hit, a homer, in his first 18 games. But, he’s Anthony Rizzo, and like water, he finds his own level, even if it requires him to play the Rocky theme and run naked around the clubhouse. From May 1 on, he hit .303/.393/.512 with 24 homers and 92 RBI. When the Cubs needed a spark he moved to the top of the order, where he continued his amazing run as the self-proclaimed greatest leadoff hitter of all-time. He now has 11 career homers as a leadoff man, including four in only 45 games. He’s also the only left-handed batter to ever homer off of the Brewers’ Josh Hader, and that homer, on Labor Day, nearly put the division to bed for the Cubs. That game was the first of six between the Cubs and Brewers in a 10-day period in early September, and Rizzo’s two-run shot gave the Cubs a 3-2 lead. It would have been a huge tone-setting win for the rest of the season. But Carl Edwards Jr. melted down in the bottom of the eighth (the first of many from that point on) and Kris Bryant tried to turn an unlikely double play by stepping on third for a force and then trying to get Lorenzo Cain at first. Bryant could have gone home for a force at the plate, but instead he failed to get Cain and the winning run scored. The Brewers would win four of those six Cubs matchups, and, well, you know what happened. Rizzo still has a season and two team options on his terrible contract, which is the gift that keeps on giving, allowing the Cubs flexibility as they look to add another impact bat this offseason. Javier Báez: The Most Valuable Player is a misnomer. The Brewers’ Christian Yelich will win it this year because he was the best player. But is he more “valuable” than Báez? Báez plays more premium defensive positions than Yelich and plays them all well. He has perfected the “run until you score or get tagged out” method of baserunning, showcases a super-high baseball IQ on a regular basis, is the best tagger in the game, and probably the best slider, has the same power/speed mix that Yelich has, and is a year younger. We saw flashes of the player Báez could be over the years, especially in the 2016 NLDS when he would have been the MVP if there were such a thing in that round, and the NLCS when he and Jon Lester split the award. He put almost everything together in 2018. On a team where he’s likely the third-best offensive player behind Rizzo and Kris Bryant, Báez is already the most important player on the team because of how many ways he positively impacts games. His last area to improve in is drawing walks. He played 16 more games in 2018 but walked one fewer time than he did in 2017.