At this time eight years ago, the Chicago Cubs were on top of the world. They’d just ended a 108-year championship drought, and they had a roster loaded with young, talented, incredibly popular players. It was nice. I remember nice.
So popular were those Cubs, in fact, that three of the top four MLB jersey sellers at the time were Cubs players! Kris Bryant was on top, Anthony Rizzo was second, and Javy Báez was fourth. If you extended out to the top-14 (from a few months earlier), you could add Kyle Schwarber to the mix, too.
Fast-forward eight years, and times are obviously very different.
Based on Nike jerseys sales data from the Fanatics network of sites, including MLBShop.com, since the culmination of the World Series, here are the top-20 jersey sellers at this moment, via MLB.com:
1. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers2. Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers3. Juan Soto, New York Mets4. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers5. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees6. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets7. Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies8. Jose Altuve, Houston Astros9. Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves10. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers11. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers12. Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres13. Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds14. Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore Orioles15. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates16. Kiké Hernández, Los Angeles Dodgers17. Corey Seager, Texas Rangers18. Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals19. Anthony Volpe, New York Yankees
20. Manny Machado, San Diego Padres
As you can see, it’s generally a mix of superstars, exciting young stars, and great players on popular teams. About what you’d expect.
To that end, I did not expect to see any Cubs on this list. There was a time not so long ago that it would’ve been unfathomable. But there’s a sense you get for these things, and it hasn’t felt like the Cubs were relevant in the national conversation for a long time now, and they haven’t had any players really break through as the kind of star that would move merchandise at a national level.
Which seems … bad? That is to say, if you’re the Cubs, wouldn’t these things concern you? You’re talking about one of MLB’s (theoretically) most cherished historical organizations, in the nation’s third largest city, and no one even thought there was a CHANCE they’d have a top jersey seller.
The fact that the Cubs now have a superstar in Kyle Tucker only makes things worse! Normally, a star joining a new team means an avalanche of jersey sales (see, for example, Juan Soto’s placement up there), but when the team is waning in popularity and when NO ONE believes there’s even a CHANCE that the team will do what it takes to keep the superstar for more than one season? Why in the world would a lot of people rush out and buy a Kyle Tucker Cubs jersey?
We could debate how much this actually matters, and hey, maybe Tucker – or Pete Crow-Armstrong or Dansby Swanson or Shōta Imanaga or whoever – is 21st on the list. But to me, it feels like further confirmation of how irrelevant the Cubs are right now at the national level, and how damning it is that they have given no indication whatsoever that they’ll seriously pursue re-signing Kyle Tucker at the price level he’s likely to command. All while payroll dwindles to an embarrassingly low percentage of revenue.
