Horrifying news broke this afternoon for Chicago Cub fans with the announcement that Player Personnel Director Oneri Fleita had his contract extended. Knowing that he was a Jim Hendry guy, you would think he would likely be out when the Cubs hired a new general manager.
With this move, owner Tom Ricketts just put the kibosh on any of the big name GM’s being bandied about coming to the Cubs. Do you think they’re going to want to be told who they have to employ?
What was he thinking? The timing is crazy, just like waiting until July 22 to fire Hendry and keeping him around another month to make trades and sign draft picks.
Was there any urgency that this had to be done now? He just handcuffed the entire organization and dashed the hopes of Cub fans everywhere.
There has been nothing to look forward to this season until Hendry was let go. Then the names came out about who the Cubs would have interest in. Finally, I was looking forward to what would happen in the offseason.
I was excited, and I don’t get excited easily.
I was wondering what the team was doing with Quade continuing to play his veterans and try to win games when it doesn’t matter anymore, and hasn’t since early May.
Because there is no one in the organization to dictate what should be done now and that is giving the young players an opportunity, this is another completely wasted year.
They also didn’t trade away any veterans for prospects because interim GM Randy Bush wanted to leave that for the new guy.
Year 2 for Tom Ricketts—same as the first—only worse.
It’s scary, but it really seems like this guy doesn’t have a clue, and he’s the one we’re counting on to make the decision that is going to affect the future of this franchise.
He was a fan before he was an owner. He convinced his daddy to buy the team for him because he told him “They sell out every game, every day, win or lose.”
You can’t have a fan running the team. Who is advising this guy?
He should have hired a baseball guy as soon as he was handed the keys. He had plenty of time to do research while the process was taking place.
Instead, he came in like a farm boy looking up at the tall buildings in the big city and going, “Golly gee.”
He’s in over his head and because he is the owner of the team—all hope is dead.
The offseason no longer matters because he will get it wrong. That’s what this move proves.
Since he took over the team, because of his looks and speaking manner, he has been compared to Mike McCaskey of the Chicago Bears, who is persona-non-grata in Chicago.
The bad news is—he is Mike McCaskey.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com