By: Jacob Zanolla
It’s an annual tradition that all Cubs fans look forward to, normally because it involves the Cubs community fighting with each other because hey, why not. As Adam points out, it is quite entertaining to read everyone’s reactions. It’s time to discuss the annual letter from Tom Ricketts to the Cubs fanbase.
He starts off the letter by saying, “There is no way to sugarcoat it- this is not where we planned to finish the season. Like our fans, we had high expectations for our team this year, and early victories delivered hope for postseason baseball. But inconsistent play and injuries upended that promise, leading us into a hole too deep to recover from despite another second-half surge. Bottom line, we did not play a complete season of competitive baseball. As a result, we have again missed the most exciting and exhilarating month of the season- October.”
Ricketts goes on to talk about some of the most exciting players from the season, including Shota Imanaga and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
We know that Tom truly cares about this team, but it’s unclear who is holding back the team from success: Jed Hoyer, or Tom Ricketts. After the 2023 season ended in Milwaukee, Ron Coomer said that he had never seen Ricketts more angry and disappointed. This season was worse, with higher expectations and more talent. While no quotes have came out about the anger from management, it’s not difficult to assume they aren’t pleased.
Vegas odds had the O/U on Cubs wins at 83.5 before the season, and bettors were sweating it until the last game. The Cubs finished the season with 83 wins, right around where most projections had them at before the year started. Finishing with 83 wins meant the Cubs missed the playoffs by one game (not including a tiebreaker), but the same amount of wins landed the Cubs six games back in 2024. The league got better, while the Cubs stood pat with zero improvement. Going from one game out to six games out after supposedly improving your team is a complete and utter failure of a season.
Many areas need improvement, the question is whether the front office will show the urgency needed to give this enormous fanbase what it wants and deserves, playoff baseball.
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