It’s been a little over a month since the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in what some will say was the best World Series game 7 in the history of the MLB. A month has passed and the front office has gotten to work right away signing some new players such as outfielder Jon Jay.
The Cubs next target was a closer, especially after Aroldis Chapman asked the Cubs for an astronomically high amount of money. Because of that, Chicago needed to find a new closer, so what was their plan going to be? Who best fits the void left by the Cuban Missile? The Cubs decided Wade Davis was the answer.
Cubs new closer Wade Davis
The 31-year-old World Series champion, Wade Davis will now call 1060 W. Addison St. his new home. Davis will immediately take over as the starting closer as he will be replacing Aroldis Chapman. Davis comes to the Cubs with a World Series ring in hand, in 2015 Davis closed out game 5 of the World Series giving the Royals their first title since 1985. During his 8-year career in the Majors, Davis has compiled a record of 55-37, 3.53 ERA to go with 686 strikeouts and 47 saves.
The addition to the Cubs is something similar to what we saw last offseason as well; buying chemistry. Davis spent 3 years down in Tampa Bay where he was coached by Joe Maddon, at the same time Ben Zobrist was just getting into the league and he was playing with Tampa as well. The two wound up playing together again in Kansas City where both won the 2015 World Series.
Looking back on last offseason, the Cubs did the same thing, acquiring John Lackey, Lackey won the 2002 World Series with Joe Maddon back in Anaheim, Ben Zobrist played under Maddon during his time in Tampa and David Ross joined former Red Sox teammates John Lackey and Jon Lester. So, chemistry seems to be the answer, at least for the Cubs, and it seems to be working quite well.
So long Soler
At 24 years of age, Jorge Soler hit .238 along with 12 homeruns and 31 RBIs in 86 games played during the 2016 season. He missed over two months as well, as he dealt with a strained left hamstring.
The Cuban native has hit 27 career homeruns since his big league debut in 2014 along with 98 RBIs. During the 2015 postseason Soler had a huge impact on the Cubs road to the NLCS, coming up with clutch hits and home runs. He reached base 9 consecutive times to start the playoffs and had a .474 batting average along with three home runs and three doubles in just seven games played.
In this past postseason, Soler did not have that big of an impact as he went 2-13 at the plate. However, the two hits came against the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, when it mattered most of all.