The Chicago Cubs are drawing the consequences of a season that is generally mixed. On Thursday, the team announced that they had broken up with hitting coach Chili Davis.
After the Cubs were among the top home run teams in 2017, they only took eleventh place in the National League in 2018. Davis’ first season was in office in 2018.
“He did everything he could to make our boys better,” Team President Theo Epstein had stressed the week before. “In that sense, he’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”
But especially towards the end of the season the offense was weak. In three of the last four games of the season, only one run was possible. Among them were the 163rd season game in the NL Central against the Milwaukee Brewers and the wildcard game against the Colorado Rockies, who both lost.
The offensive slump in the middle of the season was particularly serious: if you ranked first in the NL in OPS in the first half, you dropped back to tenth place after the All-Star-Break.
“Our offense broke along the way at some point,” stated Epstein, who announced a “detailed investigation” the week before.
The dismissal followed final discussions between Front Office and players and coaches. Epstein concluded: “We didn’t try to sacrifice power and walks for ground balls and opposition field hits. But that was the result in the second half of the season. But we don’t want that.”
Davis could only be the beginning of a change in the coaching staff in Chicago, but further dismissals have not yet been announced. Manager Joe Maddon, on the other hand, will remain in office, as announced a few days ago.
This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.