Levine: Cubs Focused On Acquiring Young Pitching In Offseason
By Bruce Levine--
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (CBS) -- Just days after winning their first World Series in 108 years, the Cubs have turned their attention to the 2017 season.
How do they sustain their success? What are areas of need that need immediate attention? The team's executives are seeking help in one key area: pitching, pitching and more pitching.
That's the crux of what president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer are focused on.
"Pitching is priority number one and will be for a long while," Hoyer said at the GM meetings. "We have the position player group. I believe the fans will see these same players for a long time on the position-playing side. Our job now is to balance that out."
Cubs pitchers have performed at a high level in the last two years, helped by the benefit of great support from the training and medical staffs. That and some good luck have led to some uncanny good health for Cubs pitchers. The only injury of any significance to a rotation member in 2016 occurred in August when John Lackey went down for about a month with shoulder soreness, while Jason Hammel's hamstring injury was really the only issue in 2015.
The 2017 rotation should again be strong, with Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta and Lackey set to be back. But with Hammel allowed to walk in free agency now and Arrieta and Lackey both likely to be gone after 2017, fortifying the rotation is a short-term and long-term goal for Chicago.
After filling a variety of roles for the Cubs in 2016 after being acquired in a July trade with the Mariners, Mike Montgomery is the clubhouse leader to join the rotation in 2017, manager Joe Maddon told 670 The Score on Tuesday.
"He's got a solid foot in the door for that," Maddon said.
"Montgomery, I'm telling you man, this guy is a legitimate major league starter."
You can also expect the Cubs to make some more outside-the-box trades and/or signings of pitchers who have been experienced injury problems or underachieved, with the hope of finding a diamond in the rough. It's a tactic the Cubs have used in the past.
"On the way to winning, you can take some really nice chances," Hoyer said. "You can give a guy like Arrieta an opportunity to progress. You can do some experiments to give young guys opportunities. Once teams win, there seems to be a tendency for teams not to take risks. There is a danger in that type of thinking. The minute you stop developing an Arrieta or a Hendricks, I think you are in trouble."
The Cubs believe their championship culture can help new faces blossom.
"This look at adding on is something we are really focused on," Hoyer said. "We do not want to fall into that rut. We want to give guys opportunities. Sometimes you are going to fail doing that. Some may not succeed. We still must take that risk in order to continue to grow as an organization. The tendency for successful teams sometimes is to get stale. We are going to try to avoid that trap as much as we can."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
