How Safe is David Ross With the Chicago Cubs?
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The Chicago Cubs are in dire straits. They are coming off of a series sweep at the hands of the Houston Astros. They have two of their last 10 games. They sit five games under .500. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong.
It's disappointing considering how strong they started the season. Things were looking up and the Cubs appeared to be real contenders.
Then the offense fell asleep.
The starting rotation, outside of Justin Steele, fell apart.
And the bullpen has been downright disastrous.
Individual players such as Eric Hosmer and Tucker Barnhart leave plenty to be desired.
But some of this spiral can be attributed to manager David Ross and his decisions.
It begs the question many fans are asking: is his job with the Chicago Cubs safe?
It depends on how aggressive the front office wants to be and their belief in him as "the guy."
For example, the Philadelphia Phillies fired legendary manager Joe Girardi after a 21-29 start last season. Rob Thomson took over and the rest is history as the Phillies lost in Game 6 of the World Series.
Are the 2023 Cubs that 2022 Philadelphia squad? Probably not.
Another example is last season when the Texas Rangers fired manager Chris Woodward with just a few weeks left in the season. Woodward helped see the club through the rebuild, changed the culture, but ultimately wasn't seen as the aforementioned "guy" to see the team into the contention window.
Texas then brought in Bruce Bochy and now their performance this season speaks for itself.
Are the 2023 Cubs that 2022 Rangers squad? They probably resemble that more than the Phillies team of last season.
All of that to say, Ross very well may not be "the guy" but for the foreseeable future he likely won't be going anywhere. Come the end of the season?
That's a different story.
