What do you get the World Series champs who have everything, the team that has almost everything back from the most celebrated Game 7 in baseball history?
If it’s the Cubs, it’s easy: more T-shirts.
Just ahead of pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training Tuesday, manager Joe Maddon still was fine-tuning his slogans and theme for the season. For now, keep your eyes on these tees as the Cubs do their dotting and crossing the next few weeks in anticipation of their opener April 2 in St. Louis.
(And be sure to pick up a copy of Sunday’s print edition to view the new T-shirt selections).
TRY NOT TO KRUK
“You go, we go’’? With leadoff man Dexter Fowler taking his .393 on-base percentage and All-Star production to the Cardinals as a free agent, the most intriguing question of the spring might sound more like: ‘‘If he goes, how much of the run production goes with him?’’
Maddon suggested repeatedly this winter he might use young left-handed slugger Kyle Schwarber in the leadoff spot. After all, the kid has a .368 on-base percentage in 85 big-league games, including playoffs (.429 in the minors).
Then again, don’t bet the house on this plan just yet, if history means anything. For instance, three-time All-Star John Kruk was a lifetime .300 hitter with a .397 on-base percentage. But when the Padres tried him as a leadoff man early in his career, he produced a career-worst .214 average and a pedestrian .333 OBP from that spot.
RESPECT 214
From the opener until a potential Game 7 of the World Series on Nov. 1, there are 214 days to keep a roster healthy and fresh.
That healthy/fresh effort is especially important to a starting rotation with an October-caliber front end but little depth after the first four spots. And that especially applies after back-to-back runs deep into the postseason.
So look for a delay in some of the front-line starters’ spring bullpen work and don’t expect to see the big shots starting games during the first week of the spring schedule.
The fifth-starter battle between Mike Montgomery and Brett Anderson and the progress of 2016 rookie Rob Zastryzny are worth watching because all might see time in the rotation this season. The Cubs are planning to use an intermittent sixth starter approaching the All-Star break and then again after it, as they did successfully last season.
MAKE A MANGLED SWING GREAT AGAIN
Or as great as it ever was. In the case of megabucks right fielder Jason Heyward, think 2012 — the season the four-time Gold Glove winner hit a career-high 27 home runs and had an .814 OPS. In deconstructing Heyward’s swing after an offensively miserable first season with the Cubs (.230 average, seven homers, .631 OPS), hitting coach John Mallee went back to the video from 2012 to reconstruct it during months of winter work. Mallee reports strong results, and this spring will be the first test of that work.
IF IT FIELDS SEXY, WEAR IT
Maddon dropped the term ‘‘D-peat’’ during his media briefing outside the White House after the Cubs’ visit with President Obama last month. He meant the Cubs’ top-flight fielding in 2016 might be even better in 2017, and that could be the key to the franchise’s second set of back-to-back titles.
No? Consider that if Albert Almora earns the lion’s share of time in center field, the Cubs will go from good to Gold Glove-quality at that position. And consider that Gold Glove-caliber infielder Javy Baez might supplant Ben Zobrist as the primary second baseman and that Willson Contreras will get a chance to put his exceptional catching skills into the lineup four or five times a week.
How exactly all the defensive pieces are assigned in April will be a big subplot of the spring.
REPLACE THE TARGET
As meaningful as the 2016 championship remains, that season is over.
The quest to end the longest title drought in American sports floated away with the confetti under spectacular blue skies at Grant Park in November. After finally reaching the top in 2016, the Cubs face the hardest part in 2017: Staying there. Doing it again. Recapturing the magic without the aura and shared purpose created by 108 years of buildup.
Having ‘‘embraced the target’’ of expectations last season, the target only will be bigger this season with a trophy to defend. And the burden might get heavier with even more attention this spring from national media wanting to revisit every detail of the historic run.
The message Maddon devises this spring to reset his players’ minds on this entirely new and foreign concept of a Cubs repeat might play a big role in how they start this season, if not how they finish it.
There’s no telling how many mimes it’ll take this time around.
Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.
Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com
