Kyle Schwarber carted off field after scary collision during 2nd inning vs. D-backs: https://t.co/jfNovLUoQc pic.twitter.com/nlEMAnBJwl
— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2016
A Cubs season just isn't complete without the occurrence of a total disaster that threatens to derail the campaign, and that may have happened last night in Arizona. The Cubs announced today that slugger Kyle Schwarber will be out for the rest of the season with an ACL and LCL tear that happened as a result of a nasty collision with Dexter Fowler in the outfield during last night's win over the Diamondbacks. From the moment he went down on the warning track of Chase Field last night to this afternoon's crushing announcement, Cubs fans have been on a roller coaster of emotion regarding the status of Schwarber. Let's take a psychoanalytic approach to this situation and apply the five stages of grief to Cubs fans' reactions to Schwarber's injury.
Denial: Watching Schwarber crumple down to the ground last night, the immediate reaction of Cubs fans was to try and minimize the severity of the injury. Sure it looked like a bad collision, but it couldn't have been that bad. Then when Schwarber had to get carted off the field, they said that maybe he'll have a short DL stint—maybe a month tops. There was even a glimmer of hope when his X-Rays came back negative! But the MRIs showed the injury was in fact very bad, and reality started to hit hard.
Anger: Irrationality starts to take over as fans immediately take to social media to air their grievances. They say that the team is forever cursed and this is just another symptom of such. Others angrily write off the team's World Series chances. Some fans declare that this would have never happened if the National League would just institute the designated hitter rule so that Schwarber could be the team's primary DH. This is all crazy talk and should be dismissed. I'm talking about the the NL adopting the designated hitter rule, of course.
Bargaining: Fans begin to look into the feasibility of whether they can trade ligaments with Schwarber. After all, what do they really need theirs for? You figure most fans work office jobs where they sit at a desk all day and have no other physically demanding obligations. Might as well give your ACL and LCL to a guy who could actually use them in a sort of pseudo-black-market organ swap. Although Derrick Rose did say that the main reason he's always sitting out games to rest his knee is so that one day he too can sit in meetings all day without pain, so maybe this isn't such a good idea for the average fan to go through with.
Depression: Schwarber is gone for the year, and there's nothing that can be done about it. A lineup that was supposed to feature his left-handed power at the plate will miss him sorely. The excitement of getting to watch him smash homers onto Sheffield all summer is completely gone. The offense will suffer a huge setback, the team is cursed and keeping up with all the other great teams in the National League has become much more difficult. If only there was some silver lining to be found here…
Acceptance: …Oh wait, there is. One of the strengths of this team is its depth. Now that Schwarber is down, Jorge Soler has a chance to step up and show off more of the incredible potential he has shown the past two seasons. Or maybe Kris Bryant will become a regular in the outfield while Javier Baez is inserted into the infield and is given more chances to prove himself to be a capable Major League power hitter. Losing Schwarber sucks, but when you have a stacked roster like the Cubs, a loss to injury like this isn't the end of the world. And for all the success the team has experienced on offense so far, none of that is thanks to Schwarber, who had only reached base once in five plate appearances. The team will be fine, and is still projected to vanquish all of their opponents and eat their souls. We're talking about the Cubs, after all. What more could possibly go wrong?