Owner setting high bar for Cubs
Tradition calls for Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts to welcome the team back every spring with a talk that establishes expectations for the upcoming season.
Ricketts made news Monday reasserting the Cubs’ plan to end their one-year championship drought, bold talk embraced by everyone from manager Joe Maddon to the last player in camp.
“I won’t say a season is a failure because you don’t win the World Series,” Ricketts said. “But it is our goal.”
It doesn’t seem long ago that the biggest goal Ricketts discussed on Day One of spring training revolved around Wrigley Field renovations or changes in the dugout. The annual big battle that loomed involved City Hall, not the Dodgers or Nationals. How times change. Now — beginning his ninth year at the helm of the Cubs — Ricketts sets a World Series-or-bust tone in his opening remarks.
Funny thing is, Ricketts didn’t have to say a word for everyone to already grasp that. His real statement about 2018 came earlier this month when the Cubs signed Japanese star Yu Darvish to a sixyear, $126 million contract. The entire baseball world heard it.
The Cubs announced their 2018 slogan as “Everybody In.” Ricketts proved how much ownership was by digging deep in the family’s pockets to lure the top freeagent pitcher to the North Side. The commitment to win starts at the top, where you will find a die-hard Cubs fan disguised as team chairman. Don’t let the sheepish, aw-shucks demeanor fool you: Ricketts is more competitive than he looks.
Sustaining success takes money. And Ricketts has evolved into a chairman willing to spend whatever it takes in the name of winning.
The addition of Darvish inflated the Cubs’ payroll to $172 million, the fifth-highest in baseball, according to spotrac.com. It also showed how much Ricketts trusts club president Theo Epstein with his money, even if it meant giving it to an outsider — Darvish — over a Cubs legend in Jake Arrieta.
After the Cubs’ season ended in October in the National League Championship Series loss to the Dodgers, a sense of inevitability surrounded Arrieta’s departure. But Maddon felt just as certain that, somehow, the combination of the Rickettses’ money and Epstein’s brain would find a way to make the Cubs legitimate World Series contenders again.
“I thought something would be done,” Maddon said. “I thought, ‘OK, Jake won’t be back, but we will replace Jake in a good way.’ I knew what our game plan was.”
In Chicago, oddly, the Cubs are the only professional sports team with a plan to win now. Optimism oozes at White Sox camp in Glendale, Ariz., because of all the terrific prospects, but they would be happy to win 75 games. The Bears hired a new, 39-year-old coach, allowing the franchise to hit reset yet again. The Bulls picked their lane in June by trading AllStar Jimmy Butler to begin a rebuild that appears promising — for 2020.
The Blackhawks can’t end their disappointing season soon enough so real changes can re-establish them as viable Stanley Cup contenders someday.
So when Ricketts speaks with urgency absent from Chicago’s other teams and backs it up with big investments, it resonates even more.
The NFL’s offseason features plenty of intrigue beyond where Kirk Cousins and dozens of other quarterbacks will land.
As the Philadelphia Eagles enjoy the city’s first NFL title since 1960 and the New England Patriots smart over their failure to win a sixth ring, 30 other teams are plotting to unseat the conference kings.
That appears to be a tougher task in the AFC than in the NFC, where the Vikings, Saints and Rams all are on the rise and the Packers promises to get back with Aaron Rodgers under center again.
Deshaun Watson’s comeback from a torn ACL could put the Texans in the mix along with the resurgent Jaguars to wrest the Lamar Hunt Trophy from the grasp of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels, whose reneging on the Colts coaching job reignited the animosity between Indy and New England.
At league headquarters, Roger Goodell wants to see the mystery of the NFL’s catch rule solved.
Five cities are building their case to host the league’s annual draft in 2019 or 2020. This year’s extravaganza will be held April 26-28 in Jerry’s backyard at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
On Tuesday, teams could begin designated franchise or transition players and in a week they’ll all be at the NFL combine in Indianapolis to take a gander at this year’s top college prospects.
Free agency starts March 14 with the new league year and that’s when the QB dominoes will start to fall.
Teams that hired a new coach this year — the Cardinals, Bears, Lions, Colts, Giants, Raiders and Titans — get to begin offseason workouts April 2. Everyone else starts two weeks later.
While baseballs soar and basketballs bounce over the next few months, some story lines that will provide a football fix:
■ Kirk Cousins’ next destination: With Washington expected to acquire Alex Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs, Cousins will say goodbye to the Redskins and hello to the really big bucks. The Broncos, Jets and Cardinals could jockey to see who will pay Cousins $30 million annually.
■ John Elway’s next comeback: The Broncos boss wants to quit fretting over the position he knows the most about. Landing Cousins or one of the top college QBs will allow him to move on from Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler and Trevor Siemian, who all started during Denver’s 5-11 faceplant.
■ Will Andrew Luck play? Some believe the impetus for McDaniels backing out of the Colts job was the uncertainty surrounding QB Andrew Luck, who missed all of last season following shoulder surgery. Luck hopes to resume his career in 2018, but he still hasn’t thrown a football since October.
■ Did Indy luck out? McDaniels’ brush-off led the Colts to hire ex-Eagles OC Frank Reich, who got glowing endorsements from former team president Bill Polian, ex-coach Tony Dungy and former QB Peyton Manning. Reich figured to be atop the list of hot head coaching candidates next winter, so this was a jump-start.
■ Who will be Minnesota’s QB? The Vikings are in an odd situation at quarterback. They have an abundance in Case Keenum, who was a suburb fill-in with Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford hurt. They’re both getting healthy but none of the three are under contract for next season. ■ What’s the Panthers’ future? While former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White looks into claims of sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace against Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, potential buyers are exploring purchasing the team. Goodell says he wants the team to remain in Charlotte under the new owners.
■ Who will wow the NFL? Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Nashville and Cleveland-Canton are hoping to land the NFL draft in either 2019 or 2020. Representatives for each site will offer presentations before the final selections are made in May at the NFL spring meetings in Atlanta.
■ How will Raiders mesh? Last summer, Oakland QB Derek Carr signed a five-year, $125 million contract. This winter, Jon Gruden signed a 10-year, $100 million deal to return to the sideline from the broadcast booth. Now, it’s time for Gruden and Carr to make it work together.
■ Will Pats defy time? Brady and Belichick failed to win a sixth ring when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles. But McDaniels couldn’t leave the soon-to-be 41-year-old QB coming off an MVP season. Opponents continue to wonder when Brady will hit that wall and quit being so frustratingly good.