The final day of the 2024 Chicago Cubs season has arrived. I think you could generously call it a mixed year, with stretches of very high highs, and very low lows. Less generously, I think you’d simply call it disappointing. Maybe that’s on me/us for hoping for a win total in the upper-80s and a more serious playoff run, but I don’t think it was too much to hope for meaningful improvement on last year’s results. To that end, the 2024 Cubs can top the 2023 Cubs by one win if they beat the Reds today. Maybe you’d be able to call that a step forward?
- We’re not going to know for a good long while whether yesterday was ACTUALLY Kyle Hendricks’ final start with the Chicago Cubs (which makes doing a full on “Farewell, Kyle” post kinda tricky), but I’m glad everyone treated it as such just in case. Hendricks, the last remaining member of The Team That Did It, and one of the best Cubs starting pitchers of the current era, deserved a special moment at Wrigley Field. The incredible part is that he added so much to the moment with his performance – with 7.1 shutout innings, he would’ve gotten a standing ovation from the home crowd regardless of the date.
- Hendricks has said he intends to keep on pitching, and he will assuredly point to his performance from June on as an indication that he can still be a productive big league pitcher: 94.1 IP, 4.29 ERA, 4.29 FIP. That’s still a touch below league average for this season, but not every pitcher on every roster is league average or better (that’s kind of one of those “by definition” situations). There may very well be a rotation spot out there for him, even if not with the Cubs, who I expect would gladly consider offering a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, but not a guaranteed job.
- As for whether Hendricks will get a big league deal this offseason from some other club, I think it’s probably 50/50. It’s not that hard to imagine some small market smart organization wanting to bring him in on a $2M deal or whatever, wanting the value on the field, sure, but also the value in having him work as a teammate with your young pitchers.
- Dansby Swanson got the final out of yesterday’s game with what may have been his best play of the season:
- Caleb Kilian will start today’s season finale (Shōta Imanaga’s season is over – it was just a matter of him having thrown plenty of innings this year), and all you can do is hope he has a good outing that gives him some confidence heading into the offseason. I still feel like the Cubs are going to want to keep him around on the 40-man as a possible up-down guy next year (or maybe they finally try him in true relief).
- Top Cubs draft pick Cam Smith got his visit to Wrigley Field, and it was a pretty darn good day to be there:
- More on Smith’s visit, and fantastic pro debut, coming soon.
- Also in Chicago yesterday? Sammy Sosa, appearing at a Club 400 event:
- Shohei Ohtani understandably gets all the “holy crap what is he doing this season” attention, with Aaron Judge getting most of the spillover. But Jose Ramirez deserves some attention for the crazy thing he COULD pull off today: he stands at 39 homers, 39 doubles, and 41 steals. If he homers, obviously he joins the very exclusive 40-40 club. But if he homers AND doubles, he joins a 40-40-40 club that has just one other member: Alfonso Soriano in 2006.
- Baseball is fun:
- Playoff scenarios for today:
