1992 - The Frustration Continues

After another disappointing season in 1991, the Cubs didn't make wholesale changes, but did make some important moves. Jim Essian was not retained in the managerial position, which instead went to Jim Lefebvre. Lefebvre, a Dodgers infielder of the late 1960s and early 1970s, became Seattle's manager in 1989. In his third year there, he led the team to the first winning season in its history at 83-79, but was fired anyway.

Despite the free-agent failures of 1991, the Cubs signed another big-ticket free agent during the offseason. Mike Morgan was a journeyman right-handed starter who had debuted in the majors at age 18 in 1978. Landing with the Dodgers, his sixth team, he showed promise in 1989 as a swingman, posting a 2.53 ERA in 153 innings, more than two full runs lower than his career ERA coming into the season. In 1991, he blossomed into a star, with a 2.78 ERA in 236 innings and a 14-10 record. The Cubs took a chance that it was not a fluke and signed him.

The Cubs' best signing in the offseason was of a player they already had. Ryne Sandberg was in the last year of his three-year contract in 1992 and he announced he would not engage in negotiations after the start of spring training. Seeing Ryno in any major league uniform but the Cubs' was unthinkable, so the team negotiated a four-year extension that made their second baseman the highest-paid player in baseball history, at over $7 million per year.

The transaction with the most far-reaching implications, though no one knew it at the time, was conducted at the end of spring training. Cubs fans were wondering if George Bell could recapture his 1987 form in his second year at Wrigley, but they never got a chance to find out. On March 30, Bell was sent across town to the White Sox for middle reliever Ken Patterson and a young centerfielder named Sammy Sosa.

Sosa was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Texas Rangers at the age of 16. He made his debut with the Rangers in June 1989, but was included in a blockbuster deal with the White Sox in July (Harold Baines was the Rangers' main acquisition). He showed promise in 1990, with 15 home runs and 32 steals in 153 games, bit hit just .233 with a horrendous .282 on-base percentage. He spent significant time in the minors in 1991, getting into 116 major league games with a .203 average. Still he was only 23 years old in spring 1992 and the Cubs were willing to take a chance that he would develop.

Sosa was part of a mini-youth movement conducted by the team. 37 year-old Andre Dawson and 32 year-old Ryne Sandberg weren't going anywhere, but several youngsters would see significant playing time in '92, including middle infielders Rey Sanchez and Jose Vizcaino, both 24 and outfielder Derrick May, the 23 year-old son of former Brewers outfielder Dave May.

1992 Opening Day Lineup
Dunston, ss
Sosa, cf
Sandberg, 2b
Dawson, rf
Grace, 1b
Villanueva, c
Salazar, lf
Scott, 3b
Maddux, p

The Cubs won the opener in Philadelphia behind Maddux, but the rest of April was a disaster, as the Cubs won just 7 of their 20 games during the month. Although they would rally to flirt with a winning record, they never contended. They lost to Philadelphia on April 21 to drop 5.5 games back of the division lead and never got closer than 5 games for the rest of the season.

Sosa started out slowly. Fans who remember only the muscle-bound "Slammin' Sammy" of the late '90's and early 2000's may find it hard to imagine, but Sosa, at this point, was a sleek, fast centerfielder, who usually batted leadoff or second and was known as "The Panther." However, at the end of May, he was hitting just .243 with 2 homers, although he did have 11 steals. On June 10, he seemed to break out with 2 home runs in a victory against the Cardinals. In his next game, on June 12, he was hit in the wrist by Montreal's Dennis Martinez and forced to go on the disabled list with a broken bone.

The Cubs were playing better after their rough start and evened their record at 38-38 on June 30. On July 11, they traded Danny Jackson, their big disappointment of 1991, to the Pittsburgh Pirates straight up for third baseman Steve Buchele, a glove man with decent power. The trade came near the end of a 2-10 stretch that dropped the club 8 games below .500 and 9.5 back in the division. Sosa returned on July 27 and responded with two 3-hit games in a row and an 11th inning game-winning home run in his third game to key a sweep of the Pirates. He had another 3-hit game on August 1 and by August 5, had his average up to .260. On August 6, though, he fouled a pitch off his ankle, breaking it. He was done for the season. Cubs fans would have to wait until 1993 to see if Sosa could fulfill his potential.

The Cubs got hot without Sosa in the lineup. When he went down for the second time, their record was just 51-55, but the northsiders went 16-8 for the rest of the month to enter September with a 67-63 record. Both Morgan and Maddux went 3-0 during that stretch. Morgan was proving to be as good as the Cubs had hoped. By the end of the month, he was 13-6 with a 2.38 ERA. Maddux, though, was even better. After throwing a complete game shutout against the Dodgers on August 31, he was 16-10 with a 2.13 ERA.  He had as many strikeouts as hits allowed, 157 of each, and had given up only 61 walks in 224 innings.

Unfortunately, September was not a good month. The Cubs fell to 74-75 on September 20, but evened their record the next day, dealing a 10-1 shellacking to the Mets behind Maddux. They then proceeded to lose their next eight games, assuring themselves of their 17th losing season in a 20-year span. After taking two of three from the Expos at Wrigley in the concluding series of the year, they finished at 78-84. The team seemed to be drifting along just south of mediocrity. They had now won between 76 and 78 games in five out of their last six seasons, a streak broken only by their divisional championship year of 1989.

The only highlights of the last month of the season were provided by Maddux, who was 4-1 during the month, with his 20th win of the season coming via complete-game shutout against the Pirates on September 30. He became the first Cubs pitcher to win 20 since Rick Reuschel in 1977. For the 26-year old hurler it was an incredible year, which marked his arrival as not only a top-of-the-line starter, but a pitcher with Hall of Fame ability. Maddux's 20 wins led the league, as did his 268 innings pitched. He was third in strikeouts with 199. His microscopic 2.18 ERA was, somewhat amazingly, only third in the league, but he was first (retroactively) in adjusted ERA, a measure that takes into account the effect of each pitcher's home park. According to another retroactive stat, Baseball-Reference.com's Wins Above Replacement (rWAR), Maddux was not only the best pitcher, but the best player in all of MLB in 1992. It all added up to his first NL Cy Young Award.

The Cubs had two starters having great seasons in 1992. Morgan justified the Cubs' faith in him by finishing with a 2.55 ERA in 240 innings, resulting in a 16-8 record. The rest of the starters and the bullpen were just OK (Bob Scanlan led the team with only 14 saves), but the Maddux and Morgan combination helped the Cubs finish 5th in the league in ERA.

Whereas in 1991, a strong offense had been let down by a weak pitching staff, in 1992, a decent pitching staff was undermined by a weak offense, as the Cubs finished just 10th in the league in runs scored. The Cubs' trio of offensive stars did alright. Sandberg bolstered his Hall of Fame credentials with another fine year, hitting .304 with 100 runs scored and homering 26 times. Mark Grace hit .307 and 37-year old Andre Dawson led the team with 90 RBIs while homering 22 times and batting .277. As far as decent offensive performances, though, that was it. No one besides that trio drove in or scored even 50 runs and no one besides Sandberg and Dawson hit as many as 10 homers. With Maddux in the walk year of his contract in 1992 and Dawson and Sandberg on the wrong side of 30, the future seemed very uncertain.

1992 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Ryne Sandberg, 100; H - Sandberg, 186; HR - Sandberg, 26; RBI - Dawson, 90; BA - Mark Grace, .307; OBP - Grace, .380; SP - Sandberg, .510

1992 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Chuck McElroy, 72; IP - Greg Maddux, 268; W - Maddux, 20; SO - Maddux, 199; ERA - Maddux, 2.18; SV - Bob Scanlan, 14