And so poor performance claims the job of another coach.
It's not surprising in the least, but seeing well-respected hitting coach, Rudy Jaramillo, get the ol' heave-ho from the Chicago Cubs organization is, well, just too bad. The strange thing about the firing is that the organization's brass admits, quite willingly, that Jaramillo wasn't the problem. Theo Epstein said, "Rudy's not to blame for the results.That's something we're all accountable for. We put the roster together. It's probably more on us than it is on him." Of course, Epstein still has his job. That's the benefit of being the boss, I guess.
Jaramillo was in his third season as the Cubs' hitting coach. When he came over from the Texas Rangers --where he had spent the previous 15 seasons-- there was a lot of buzz, at least as far as hitting coaches are concerned, because he was the man in charge of the Rangers' torrid offense in years prior. While Jaramillo is a great coach, I'm sure, having players like the Rangers did on offense couldn't possibly hurt your chances of success. Not surprisingly, the Cubs never came close to achieving the same degree of offensive success the Rangers did in even their down seasons.
Epstein furthered his comments by saying "If you're going to embrace a new message, you need a new voice to go with it. Rudy is so good with the mechanics of the swing. He's excellent at that. I think sometimes it can be hard to shift into more of an emphasis on an approach, the mental side of hitting and other things we're trying to emphasize. It just seemed like the appropriate time to make a decision." I can't really figure out if there is an off-handed jab at Jaramillo in those comments, but I suppose it doesn't matter, they fired him. I imagine that's plenty enough of a jab. And it certainly isn't an off-handed one.
Coaches getting fired for poor player performance isn't anything new. Unfortunately, neither is poor player performance on the Cubs. Good luck, Rudy.
Brian is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, having lived in Illinois his entire life and having followed Major League Baseball throughout.
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