Among all the virtues of spring training in baseball’s modern era, the best might just be what it does for team chemistry. It’s where players develop the inside jokes that will sustain them all summer, create the celebrations they’ll bust out whenever they hit a walkoff and bestow nicknames upon each other that are sure to come up in interviews for the remainder of the year.
It’s that latter act where the Chicago Cubs infield duo of Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson could’ve used a little more help — or at least some audience testing.
And anyone who’s followed baseball free agency over the last decade or so could probably tell you why pretty quickly.
The nickname has been decided by the duo themselves 🫡
Say hello to Nickel & Dimes. pic.twitter.com/mpnHPqVCiI
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 20, 2024
Ok, on the one hand, Nickel and Dimes is a great name for a double play combo. On the other, c’mon guys. Read the room! You’re playing on a team that until recently was shedding as much salary as it could.
As the team’s negotiations to bring back free agent Cody Bellinger continue to drag on, the nickname feels more apt for the front office than anywhere else.
The Cubs are a big market team that certainly hasn’t acted like it in quite some time. The North Siders last ranked among the top five payrolls in baseball 2020 and watched homegrown talents like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber accept massive contracts from other franchises.
All of which is to say Hoerner and Swanson aren’t the first thing to that comes to mind when Cubs fans hear “Nickel and Dime”.
