by Tom Verducci
Schwarber reached the big leagues one year after being drafted. In just 69 games in 2015 he smashed 16 home runs. No Cubs player ever had hit so many homers in so few games in his first season. What happened in 2015 was shocking in terms of impact hitting from the Chicago rookies. Until then, only two first-year players in franchise history ever hit as many as 13 home runs: Mandy Brooks, with 14 in 1925, and Vince Barton, with 13 in 1931. The Cubs had three such rookies in 2015 alone: Schwarber; Kris Bryant, who hit 26; and Addison Russell, who hit 13. Schwarber added 5 home runs in nine postseason games.
The knee injury may have kept Schwarber out of action in 2016, but not out of mind. The renovated clubhouse facilities at Wrigley Field allowed Schwarber to attend to much of his rehabilitation work in Chicago, whereas in past years he would have been assigned to the spring training complex in Mesa. By staying in Chicago, Schwarber immersed himself in the team’s daily preparations for home games. He sat in on and contributed to the pregame meetings between the catchers, the starting pitcher, and coach Mike Borzello, as if he were starting behind the plate. He sat with Epstein as an advisor in the Cubs’ draft room during the June draft.
“Well, if you know me as a person, that’s the kind of guy I am,” Schwarber said before Game 1 of the World Series. “I’m a baseball rat. I want to be involved in it as much as I can. A lot of things go to this team and this organization for allowing me to be around. They were a big rock in my rehab. I could have easily just gone to Arizona, gone through the motions in rehab, but these guys really made me kick it up a notch. I’m here, sitting here today mostly because of those guys.”
The process was grueling. Teammate Pedro Strop would tell him, “You’re going to be back this year,” but Schwarber was far from certain himself, especially in the first few weeks after the surgery.
“At first I didn’t think I was ever going to have a normal knee again,” he said. “I had to do six weeks of just keeping it straight, no walking on it, no anything. And then trying to get range of motion back after that—that was probably the toughest part for me mentally. You’re going to the field every day and trying to get your knee to bend and it just won’t. It’s painful. You’re getting strapped down to a table, they’re pushing back on it.
“But then after that, we got that range of motion back, it went to the strengthening portion of rehab, where you want to try to get all your strength back in your knee and then in your quads, hammies, things like that. Then after that, there goes the running. Running was like trying to learn as a kid again. You’re limping all over the place. You can’t figure out why you’re limping. Then, after that, it goes to swinging the stick. That went about as good as possible.”
Even while injured, Schwarber was one of the most coveted players in baseball. As Epstein scoured the trade market in July for bullpen help, teams kept asking for Schwarber. When Epstein called the Royals about Wade Davis, Kansas City asked for Schwarber. The conversation ended there. When Epstein called the Yankees about Andrew Miller, New York asked for Schwarber. Epstein told the Yankees he was an untouchable franchise player. (The Cubs shifted the focus to trading for Aroldis Chapman in a deal in which they surrendered top infield prospect Gleyber Torres.)
The big day on Schwarber’s calendar was October 17. That’s the day he was scheduled to visit Cooper for his six-month checkup. The Cubs were in Los Angeles, where they were tied with the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series at one game each.
“I’m going to see the doctor,” Schwarber told catcher David Ross as he left for his flight to Dallas, “and he’s going to tell me I’m good to go. I’ll see you at the World Series.”
The World Series was eight days away.
Schwarber did pass his checkup. The doctor was surprised at the stability of his knee. He gave Schwarber the okay to resume hitting. Schwarber flew back to Los Angeles and took batting practice that night at Dodger Stadium before NLCS Game 3. He hit again in Los Angeles the next day, then flew the day after that, Thursday, October 20, for the Cubs’ training facility in Mesa.
The World Series was just five days away.
Over the next four days, Schwarber underwent the speed version of spring training. He played in two Arizona Fall League games (he went 1-for-6) and faced live pitching in two simulated games at the Mesa facility. His hands opened up blisters on the very first day from so much hitting. Schwarber hit or tracked 1,300 pitches in four days, many out of a pitching machine that fired major-league-quality breaking pitches, some from two Class-A pitchers the Cubs brought in to pitch to him in the simulated games, and some from coaches assigned to assist the AFL team, which is a co-op team involving several organizations.
One of the AFL coaches throwing batting practice to Schwarber, unwittingly helping in this crash course to get Schwarber ready to face the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, was Larry Day, a coach from Lynchburg, a Class-A minor league affiliate of the…Cleveland Indians.
The Cubs won the National League pennant on Saturday, October 22. Schwarber, in between at-bats of his first game action in the Arizona Fall League, watched the game on an iPad in the dugout of the Mesa Solar Sox, getting strange looks whenever he would scream when the Cubs scored a run. In the training room after the game the Solar Sox doused Schwarber with champagne, a celebration from afar of the Cubs’ first pennant in 71 years.
On Monday, October 24, the day before Game 1 of the World Series, Schwarber played in an Arizona Fall League game in front of only about one hundred people. He drilled a double, slid into second base, and scored a run. He also lined out to second base on a ball hit with an exit velocity of 110 mph. Epstein took in this information on his phone, including a live feed of the game, and smiled. He knew Schwarber was ready. The Cubs had a private plane waiting for him in Mesa to take him to Cleveland that night. Schwarber told the driver meeting him at the Cleveland airport to take him directly to the ballpark, rather than the hotel.
“I wanted to just get a little sneak peek what it would be like for today,” he said before the World Series opener. “You know, just tried to soak it in as much as I can.”
He then checked into his hotel, where, despite his long day, he “didn’t really sleep. I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. I told myself I wanted to go to sleep at a good hour. That didn’t happen, but as expected.”
Maddon had offered encouragement to Schwarber throughout the rehab, assuring him that he expected him back as good as new—but for the 2017 season.
“There are maybe five people, if that, who could have done what he did,” the manager said.
In ways Epstein never could have imagined, Schwarber rewarded the faith Epstein had put in him just two years earlier, when critics accused the Cubs of overreaching to draft Schwarber so high.
“His bat and his intangibles are why we drafted him,” Epstein said. “He’s a complete impact hitter with the bat, but more than that he’s the perfect player to have as a franchise player because he can be one of your best players who everybody else wants to follow because of his character. He’s a special player and a special person.”
Maddon immediately put Schwarber in the lineup without reservations.
“I think from watching him, first of all everything looks right,” he said. “He’s running well. I don’t know what he’s going to show you tonight, but he can run normal without injuring himself. The biggest thing would be timing issues—breaking ball, etc. But that’s something that’s always been a part of his game. If you get him in swing mode, you can get him to chase. He did that last year. But if he’s not in swing mode and he stays off that stuff, heads up! His swing looks normal. If you get a chance to watch BP, you’re going to see the ball go really far.”
Even with rust, Schwarber was the least of Maddon’s concerns as the World Series opened. The manager had to make a decision about what to do with Jason Heyward, who had managed only two hits in 28 at-bats in the postseason while getting beat by fastballs with regularity. Heyward, a left-handed
hitter, was his everyday rightfielder throughout the season, and in the postseason had started every game except three games started by tough left-handers, Madison Bumgarner, Rich Hill, and Clayton Kershaw.
To bench Heyward against a right-hander, Kluber, and to do it in the first game of the World Series, would take a bit of courage on Maddon’s part, especially because Heyward already had confronted Maddon about being left out of a lineup. After the Cubs needed 13 innings to beat San Francisco in Game 3 of the NLDS, 6–5, the game in which Maddon did not start Heyward against Bumgarner, Heyward poked his head into Maddon’s small office at AT&T Park.
“Can we talk?” Heyward asked.
Heyward is one of the most physically intimidating players in the big leagues. He is 6-foot-4 and a ripped 240 pounds. Coincidentally or not, Heyward walked into Maddon’s office with no shirt on. He practically filled the room. He clearly was upset and hurt, but his words were measured. Heyward told Maddon he didn’t take kindly to the benching, that he felt he could help the team in many ways, no matter who was pitching for the other team.
“That wasn’t a difficult meeting,” Maddon said. “I love that he would do that, but it was not a difficult conversation. He just wanted to tell me what he thought. It wasn’t a disrespectful, ‘I’m angry with you’ kind of thing. He wanted me to understand where he was coming from—that he is a proud man. ‘I’m here to contribute. If I’m on the field consistently I will show you what I am,’ which I knew.
“I pretty much listened, which I normally do. I can tell when a guy is hot, and there’s not a whole lot I’m going to do as far as having an exchange with him. Listen, it happens. It happened enough during the season so that they talk, I listen, and then we’re fine the next day, or even right after the meeting is over. But they have to come see me.”
When Maddon did not start Heyward against Hill in Game 3 of the NLCS, he did not tell Heyward in advance of his decision. Maddon explained that Heyward didn’t attend the voluntary workout on the previous day—when he planned on telling him—nor did he have a chance to speak with him before the lineup was texted to players for Game 3.
A similar scenario occurred before World Series Game 1. Around midday, Maddon texted his lineup to the front office chain, and coach Brandon Hyde retexted it to the players. Heyward wasn’t in it—this time against a right-hander, the biggest sign yet of the manager’s lack of confidence in Heyward. Maddon sent an individual text to Heyward regarding his exclusion from the lineup.
“He didn’t return the text,” Maddon recalled later. “So, okay, he’s pissed. There’s nothing I can do about it at that point. Sometimes the guy is going to be upset and not want to talk about it. There’s not a whole lot I can do about that. I expect that. It’s part of the landscape. It happens to everybody. I don’t take it in a bad way. It’s part of the job. Because you’re not going to keep everybody happy, I promise you. If he’s upset, then somebody else is happy that they’re playing.”
In Heyward’s place Maddon chose to start Chris Coghlan, a .188 hitter who had started only 18 games in rightfield all year.
“Obviously J-ward has been struggling,” Maddon explained. “Just give C.C. a chance. Kluber’s pretty good. American League lineup, you have to take advantage of that extra hitter if you can. Keep working with J-ward. Definitely go to his defense in the latter part of the game.
“[Coghlan] was swinging the bat really well, and still is. You just watch him working. It could have been one of the right-handers, [Willson] Contreras. I just wanted to get another lefty on him. C.C. was swinging the bat well.”
Maddon’s biggest concern, however, had to do with the matchup of his starting pitcher, Jon Lester, against the Indians, one of the best baserunning teams in baseball. Lester’s phobia about throwing to bases could be exploited by a team that stole the fourth most bases in baseball, the most in the American League.
Maddon had learned long ago the best way to deal with Lester’s yips was to leave him out of the game-planning about how to defend the running game. Maddon already had talked the previous day with David Ross, Lester’s catcher, about calling more “disguised” pitchouts. A pitchout is a ball intentionally thrown far away from the batter when a stolen base attempt is anticipated so that the catcher can rise from his crouch early, essentially gaining a head start toward throwing out the runner. But Maddon knew that Lester’s throwing yips also sabotaged his ability to throw an accurate traditional pitchout. So Lester threw only “disguised” pitchouts, which are simply fastballs thrown off the corners of the plate, and usually up. Maddon could call for such a pitch from the bench or Ross could call for it on his own.
Lester, Maddon added, might actually throw to first base on a pickoff attempt for the first time since July. The manager was encouraged by a throw Lester made in Game 5 of the NLCS, when Lester fielded a bunt by Joc Pederson of the Dodgers and threw him out, albeit on an ugly, bounced throw to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who advised Lester to keep his throws along the ground, where at least he had a chance to catch them. Anything well over his head would leave Rizzo with no chance.
“My point is since he did that the other day you may see something to first base today,” Maddon said. “We’ve practiced everything. Everything. We’ve practiced everything. My point is he may have gained some kind of weird confidence from that moment. The minute he threw that ball to first base, I thought his game was elevated on the mound. I thought everything got better.
“I’ve talked to Rossy. I’ve communicated with him to have him communicate with Jon. I don’t want to talk to Jon, so David does a great job. Me and David talked here yesterday. We went over some things.”
So this is how Maddon would begin the World Series for the Cubs, their first World Series game in 71 years: with a rightfielder making only his 19th start at that position all year, his $184 million left-handed-hitting rightfielder benched against a right-handed pitcher, not talking to a pitcher who has a mental block throwing to bases facing a team that led the American League in stolen bases, and a designated hitter who was seeing major league pitching for the first time in 201 days. What could possibly go wrong?
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It took only four batters to confirm Maddon’s fears about Lester facing the running game of the Indians. Cleveland’s first baserunner, shortstop Francisco Lindor, swiped second base on the second pitch after reaching on a single. It cost Chicago a run. Lindor scored what was the first of two first-inning runs for Cleveland.
With the way Kluber pitched, the game effectively was over right there. Kluber’s nickname is “Klubot,” as much for his stoicism as for the machinelike consistency of his pitching. But after throwing his last warm-up in the bullpen before the game, Kluber actually let loose a rare smile. It was the rough equivalent of a Haley’s comet sighting, a Thomas Pynchon book tour, or a Cleveland professional sports championship. The expression came in recognition of the stuff Kluber had that night.
“When you can make the ball move like that,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway said, “you should smile. Yes, I saw it. I could tell right away. You could definitely tell the movement he had today from the bullpen.”
The Cubs had no chance against Kluber. None. He was that good. They lost, 6–0. In six innings Kluber threw 30 sinkers, which is a misnomer because his two-seam fastball runs more than it sinks. Twenty-four of those 30 sinkers were strikes, an outstanding percentage for anyone, but especially for someone with so much movement and mid-90s velocity. Kluber obtained 24 called strikes on just 88 pitches. Most of the called strikes occurred on pitches Cubs hitters were certain would stay far out of the zone, only to come darting back over the plate. Kluber had pitched in 143 major league games, postseason included. Never before did he obtain so many called strikes in so few innings.
Three men iced down after this game: Lester, the losing pitcher; Kluber; and Larry Vanover, the home plate umpire who practically strained a right rotator cuff calling strikes.
Kluber’s insane movement at pe
ak velocity produced one of the greatest pitching lines in World Series history: no runs, no walks, and nine strikeouts. Only one other pitcher in World Series history had struck out so many batters with no walks and no runs: Roger Clemens, in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series for the Yankees against the Mets.
Facing Kluber and relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, the Cubs struck out 15 times. Only one team in World Series history had ever been shut out with so many strikeouts: the 1968 Detroit Tigers, who ran into a buzz saw named Bob Gibson. The Cardinals ace struck out 17 that day in Game 1.
The box score told a story of Cleveland domination. The Cubs had waited 71 years for this? Maddon left the park that night, however, in good spirits. For one reason, the loss was easy to dismiss because the Indians pitched incredibly well.
“I mean, I’m not disappointed by any means except for the fact that we did not win,” he said. “I thought we came out ready to play. They pitched well…I know we had 15 punch-outs. I get it. But the quality of the at-bats was not that bad.”
There was one more reason for Maddon to be optimistic about the shutout defeat: Schwarber looked like Roy Hobbs. In four plate appearances Schwarber saw 18 pitches, drew a walk, and banged a double off the wall in rightfield, very nearly coming close to hitting a home run while seeing big league pitching for the first time in 201 days. It was an astounding display of natural hitting ability. Maddon knew right away that Schwarber would be a force in the World Series.
A few weeks before spring training of 2012, in the ballroom of a budget hotel in Mesa, Arizona, Theo Epstein stood before nearly every person connected with the baseball operations of the Chicago Cubs and told them how the Cubs were going to win the World Series. His long speech would be the first and easily the most important one he would give as president of baseball operations. It kicked off four days of organizational meetings. It was his vision of the future.