The only drawback to Greg Maddux's incredible year in 1992 was that it was the final year of his contract with the Cubs and would increase the amount it would take to re-sign him. Cubs fans were nervous as Maddux hit free agency in the offseason. Unfortunately, their worst fears were realized when Maddux agreed to a huge contract with the Atlanta Braves that was actually just slightly more than what the Cubs were offering (and significantly less than what the New York Yankees offered). Cubs general manager Larry Himes seemed to lose interest after Maddux did not accept the Cubs' first offer. Instead of negotiating with Maddux, Himes went out and signed free-agent pitchers Jose Guzman and Randy Myers while Maddux was still available, supposedly leaving no money to re-sign Maddux.[1]
It was a disaster, much worse than the infamous Brock-for-Broglio trade with the Cardinals in 1964. Maddux built on his superior 1992 season, establishing a run of dominance that would make him a no-doubt Hall of Famer. He pitched for Atlanta for 11 seasons, never winning fewer than 16 games, pitching fewer than 200 innings only once (a year in which he threw 199.1) and winning four ERA titles, with figures as low as 1.56. Probably his best year was 1995 when he was 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA and led the Braves to their first World Series championship in Atlanta. He also pitched for two other pennant winners, in 1996 and 1999. The 1992 NL Cy Young Award turned out to be the first in an unprecedented string of four consecutive Cy Young Awards. In all Maddux had a record of 194-88 with an ERA of 2.63 in over 2500 innings pitched during his time in Atlanta.
Losing Maddux hurt at the time, although the magnitude of the damage would only be seen in hindsight. Cubs fans could only hope that the new pitchers would fill some of the gap. Jose Guzman was a 29 year old righthanded starter who after a couple of fair seasons with the Rangers in the late eighties, missed all of 1989 and 1990 with shoulder problems. He returned from surgery in 1991 to finish at 13-7 with a 3.08 ERA, winning Comback Player of the Year honors. The next year he was at 3.66 in 224 innings, yielding a record of 16-11 and prompting Himes to sign him to a four-year contract.
Myers was a lefthanded closer and charter member of the "Nasty Boys," along with Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton, a trio of hard-throwing relievers who had helped the Reds to a World Series Championship in 1990. Myers was coming off a one-year tenure in San Diego, during which he saved 38 games (though with a high ERA) and seemed a good bet to plug the gaping hole at the back of the Cubs' bullpen. The team hadn't had a pitcher save more than 17 games since Mitch Williams in 1989.
Besides Maddux, another long-time Cub left as a free agent after the 1992 season. Andre Dawson had come to the Cubs partly because the pain in his knees led him to desire to play his home games on a field with natural grass. Now, with six more seasons behind him, he needed more rest and an American League team, where he could DH some of the time, seemed the best fit. He signed a free-agent contract with the Boston Red Sox. Dawson would play two years in Boston and two more back in his hometown of Miami before retiring. When Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010, he wanted to be portrayed on his plaque wearing a Cubs cap, but ended up being pictured as an Expo, for whom, in truth, he had had his best years. Still, his Cubs tenure was memorable and he remains one of the best rightfielders in team history. The way in which he came to the team, as well as his memorable 1987 season, will always be a part of Cubs lore.
Besides Myers and Guzman, other significant offseason acquisitions for the Cubs included Candy Maldonado, Willie Wilson, and Greg Hibbard. Maldonado was a 32 year-old corner outfielder, who had seasons of 22, 20, 20, and 18 home runs on his resume. The Cubs hoped that he could provide some much needed power. Wilson was a leftfielder who had been a sensation after coming up with the Royals in the late 1970s, stealing 83 bases in 1979 and 79 in 1980, helping lead Kansas City to its first AL pennant. After hitting .217 in his rookie year, Wilson was over .300 each of the next four years, culminating in a .332 average and an AL batting title in 1982. He faded after that, however, and, by the time he came to Chicago, was just another player.
After a good year in 1990 and so-so years in 1991 and 1992, the White Sox's Greg Hibbard was selected in the expansion draft by the brand-new Florida Marlins, who immediately flipped him to the Cubs for disappointing third baseman Gary Scott and a young infielder named Alex Arias. Hibbard was a lefthanded starter who would compete for a rotation spot in 1993.
1993 Opening Day Lineup
Wilson, cf
Sanchez, ss
Grace, 1b
Maldonado, lf
Sosa, rf
Buechele, 3b
Wilkins, c
Vizcaino, 2b
Morgan, p
Greg Maddux started the opener in Chicago. Unfortunately, he was, of course, pitching for the Braves. Equally unfortunately, the Cubs were missing their best remaining player. Ryne Sandberg had broken his hand in spring training and would not play until the last day of April. With only Mark Grace in the lineup from the Sandberg-Maddux-Dawson-Grace quartet that had been the heart of the team since 1988, the result was a 1-0 loss, with Maddux giving up just 5 hits in 8 1/3 innings.
The Cubs managed to reverse the score the next day with Jose Guzman making his first start as a northsider and going the distance in dramatic fashion. No Cubs pitcher had thrown a no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972, but Guzman went into the ninth inning with a chance to end that streak. He retired Mark Lemke on a groundout to first and Francisco Cabrera on a pop to third to come within one out. However, Otis Nixon poked a single into leftfield to break up Guzman's bid for immortality. After balking the speedy Nixon to second to jeopardize the Cubs' 1-0 lead, Guzman got Jeff Blauser (a major Cubs' nemesis) to pop to shortstop to complete the shutout. It was the most impressive mound debut by a new acquisition since 1960, when Don Cardwell threw a no-hitter in his first Cubs' start after coming over via a midseason trade with the Phillies.
Despite the loss of Sandberg, the Cubs managed to hang tough, going 10-11 without their star second baseman and winning his first game back to finish April at .500. It was another year of mediocrity; no long losing streaks dashed their hopes for a winning season, but no long winning streaks gave any promise of contention. The team went 13-12 in May, 14-16 in June, and 15-12 in July. A 12-18 August seemed to dash any hopes of finishing over .500. They were 18 games behind the Phillies, in fourth place in the NL East. Of the new acquisitions, Myers was all they could have hoped for, with 37 saves, nearly equaling his output for the entire 1992 season. Hibbard was just OK at 10-11 with a 3.81 ERA and Guzman, after his great start, was 11-9, with a 4.15 ERA. Maldonado was already gone by the end of the month, traded to Cleveland for reserve outfielder Glenallen Hill after a tremendously disappointing .186/.260/.286 tenure in Chicago, with three home runs.
Amazingly, the Cubs reversed recent trends with a strong finishing kick, winning 20 of their final 30 games to finish with an 84-78 record. Hibbard was 5-0 during the stretch to finish at 15-11, leading the team in wins. Myers saved an outrageous 16 games, finishing with a league-leading total of 53, which remains the club record. Hill, installed as the new leftfielder, hit .345 with 10 round-trippers in only 87 at-bats after coming over on August 19 in the trade for Maldonado.
Sandberg hit .309 for the season after his late start, but the hand injury seemed to rob him of his power as he hit only nine home runs, his lowest total in a decade. He didn't play after September 13 because of a dislocated finger and finished with only 117 games played. For the first time since 1988, he failed to score at least 100 runs in a season. Mark Grace helped pick up some of the slack by raising his average to .325 and driving in 98 runs, which would remain his career high. The aging Wilson contributed little with a .258/.301/.348 slash line and 7 steals. The 17 games he played for the Cubs the following season would be his last in the majors.
Guzman and Mike Morgan, who were expected to be rotation anchors in 1993 both disappointed. Guzman pitched 191 innings, but his ERA was poor, at 4.34, which led to a pedestrian 12-10 record. Morgan came back down to Earth after a great 1992, finishing at 4.03 in 208 innings and a 10-15 record. There were no other viable starters and the bullpen, outside of Myers and swingman Jose Bautista (2.82 ERA in 111 innings), was weak. The staff sorely missed Maddux and finished 10th in the league in ERA.
The two biggest stories, though were the Cubs' rightfielder and catcher. Sammy Sosa was healthy all year, and proved to be the player the Cubs hoped he would be. He finished with 33 home runs and 36 stolen bases, becoming the team's first 30-30 player and scoring 92 runs. At age 24, Sosa seemed set to hold down the rightfield position for years to come.
While Sosa's performance was somewhat anticipated based on the potential the Cubs' brain trust thought they saw in him, catcher Rick Wilkins' performance came as a shock, albeit a pleasant one. Drafted out of Florida College in Jacksonville in 1986, Wilkins reached the majors in 1991 and was thrown into the Cubs' catching mix along with Hector Villanueva and future Yankees manager Joe Girardi. He showed no signs of become a star, hitting .222 with six home runs in 1991 and .270 with eight homers in 1992. He won the regular job in 1993, but was nothing special over the first two months; his average stood at .237 with 8 roundtrippers at the end of May. He exploded in June, hitting an eye-popping .414 to raise his overall average to .312 and matching his homer output of the first two months with 8. He continued to hit for power, finishing with 30 circuit blasts, though his batting average dropped to .289 in mid-September. But another torrid stretch to end the season, 17 hits and a .447(!) average over his last 12 games, left his final average at .303. He became, and remains, the only Cubs catcher to go deep 30 times in a season other than Hall-of-Famer Gabby Hartnett, who turned the trick in 1930.
The 1993 season marked the first time since 1972 that the Cubs finished over .500 without winning a division title. Cub fans could only hope that it was the start of another upswing.
1993 Cubs Batting Leaders: R - Sammy Sosa, 92; H - Mark Grace, 193; HR - Sosa, 33; RBI - Grace, 98; BA - Grace, .325; OBP - Grace, .393; SP - Rick Wilkins, .561*
1993 Cubs Pitching Leaders: G - Randy Myers, 73; IP - Mike Morgan, 208; W - Greg Hibbard, 15; SO - Jose Guzman, 163; ERA - Hibbard, 3.96; SV - Myers, 53
*Wilkins just missed qualifying for the batting title, finishing 2 plate appearances short; Sosa's .485 was the best figure for a Cub who did qualify.
[1] Stew Thornley, "Greg Maddux," Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/d13d4022, accessed 16 May 2020
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