As the Chicago Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds Saturday in the penultimate game of the season, it comes in dreadful fashion as the team has missed the playoffs. While Cubs players like Jameson Tailon expressed their disappointment, add star Nico Hoerner who spoke about if this season for the team was a failure or not.
This season marks the fourth straight that Chicago will miss the postseason as last season was more brutal since they were one game shy of making it. Back then, Hoerner said easily it was a failure, but this time around, he talked about the aspects that were successful according to The Athletic.
“We’re definitely short of where we want to be,” Hoerner said. “That’s pretty black and white. I don’t think I need to find the perfect phrasing for that. We didn’t make the playoffs. We didn’t even give ourselves a chance to win the World Series, which is the goal.”
“I am proud of a lot of things that were done internally this year,” Hoerner continued. “I’m proud of the direction of things on this team. It’s the respect that I have for my teammates and the way that people have improved as the year has gone on. The young guys that have stepped up. The re-creation of an entire bullpen. The consistency from our starters. The position-player group went through really extended stretches of not getting results or producing pretty much collectively. It feels like almost everybody has responded to that just by continuing to look for the good version of themselves and steadily improve.”
Nico Hoerner speaks on future of the Cubs and possible trade rumors
This season, Hoerner hit a .276 batting average with seven home runs and 48 RBIs in 149 games. There was bluntness and optimism though for the 27-year old second baseman in his analysis of this year and beyond.
“We’re obviously short of the ultimate standard of what we want to do,” Hoerner said. “We can process that in different ways. But I do think that the commitment to winning is extremely high. We’re going to improve.”
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Since they won the NL Central in 2020, the Milwaukee Brewers have beat out the Cubs in the division three of the four seasons following that. With the disappointment of the season will come possible trade rumors, maybe even including Hoerner, though he's motivated to be in Chicago.
“I signed an extension here for a reason,” Hoerner said. “I obviously want to be here. Winning here would be about as satisfying as it gets. Being in the organization that you’re drafted by — and to go through challenges like we talked about — you want to see and be a part of the full arc of that. That’s about the coolest thing you can do in your career. To do it alongside people that you’ve really worked with for a long time — from staff and trainers to the clubhouse guys and teammates that have come up with you — that’s the real special part about the celebrations in the playoffs. When I see other teams do that, I think about what that would be like to share with the people here.”
The Cubs looks to end the year on a positive note facing the Reds tomorrow afternoon in the regular season finale.
