Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts backs manager David Ross as team finishes 83-79: ‘He’s our guy’

MILWAUKEE — The Chicago Cubs will have plenty of time to ponder the “what ifs” of a season that fell short of their postseason goal.

Adding to the sting of finishing one game out of playoff position: the Cubs received the help they had needed coming into the weekend with the Arizona Diamondbacks getting swept by the Houston Astros. The Cubs, though, didn’t take care of business by dropping two of three games to the Milwaukee Brewers, including a 4-0 loss in Sunday’s season finale.

They closed the season by losing 15 of their last 22 games. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts described the up-and-down 83-79 year as “four different seasons” from getting off to an OK start and the subsequent slump that nearly derailed the season to rallying back over .500 and the rough final three weeks in September.

“It’s tough to not achieve your goal,” Ricketts said Sunday. “It’s tough when you’re just a couple of games away from making the playoffs. And it’s extra tough that for a while there it looked pretty likely so it feels like something got taken away.

“All I can really say at this point is that I hope the guys all take it to heart and come back in the spring ready to go.”

Ricketts gave a strong endorsement of manager David Ross, whose contract runs through 2024 with a club option for 2025.

“Rossy had a great season and the players play hard for him,” Ricketts said. “He’s our guy, so I like him a lot. He had a good year. ... When the team got down, way below .500 and it looked like the season was over, he didn’t let it go. He got the guys back and playing hard and we got to here so he was a big part of that. He’s a great manager.

“He creates a great clubhouse culture. The players love playing for him. He keeps a steady, balanced approach game-in and game-out that you need over the course of 162 games.”

Key roster decisions await president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and the front office as they enter the offseason. Among them are the futures of outfielder Cody Bellinger and right-hander Kyle Hendricks. Bellinger will become a free agent when he declines his end of a mutual option, and the 28-year-old is expected to have a strong market as one of the top free-agent sluggers.

Hendricks, 33, has a pre-bonus $16 million club option for 2024 with a $1.5 million buyout. It will be up to Hoyer to decide what to do with Hendricks’ contract, Ricketts said, “but at this point I would see him coming back.”

“We’ve had such a good relationship the whole time I’ve been here and I really respect the heck out of them,” Hendricks said Sunday. “I appreciate everything they’ve given me, all the opportunities they’ve given me so I have full trust and whatever it is, whatever is supposed to happen will happen.

“Obviously, I love it so much in Chicago and my whole career playing in front of the best fans in the world, going out in Wrigley Field all the time. So I wouldn’t want to trade that for anything and they’re well aware of that. If it works for both sides, that’d be great.”

Bellinger’s future on the North Side is much murkier. He made sure to embrace the last few weeks with his teammates because of the unknowns that come with free agency. Bellinger has loved his time with the organization, and certainly there is comfort in the rapport he’s built with the Cubs’ major-league hitting coaches and infrastructure during his bounce-back season.

“We’d love to have him back,” Ricketts said. “And that’s something that will be up to the baseball guys and the free-agent markets.

“In general, I mean, there’s something to keeping your best players, right? I mean, obviously, we extended Ian (Happ) and we extended Nico (Hoerner) this year. We’ve got six more years of Dansby (Swanson) so we’ve got a good core that we’re definitely holding on to. Like I said it’d be nice, it’s a Jed decision. It’ll be up to Jed, Cody and the free-agent markets.”

The Cubs’ 819 runs were the third-most in the National League behind the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. They hadn’t scored that many runs in a season since 2017 when they put up 822. Their 24 games with 10+ runs were their most since 1935 with only the Texas Rangers (26) producing more such games this year. Losing Bellinger would be a blow if they don’t replace his production, and they likely need to add another power hitter even if they re-sign him.

Supplementing their pitching staff, especially in the bullpen, and improving depth will be a must for the Cubs. They finished 21-24 in one-run games, which creates another layer to the pain of coming so close to making the playoffs for the first time since the COVID-19 abbreviated 2020 season.

“I don’t think that we want to start calling seasons we don’t make the playoffs good seasons, that’s a consolation prize and we don’t play for consolation prizes,” Ricketts said. “That said, there were some great moments and great performances. There was a lot of excitement and the organizational health is as strong as it’s been a long time. So with all the disappointment that we had, there’s a lot of optimism as well.”