This was a rough year for the North Siders. But they did make a couple of good acquisitions.
The 1925 season was a peculiar outlier in franchise history. After three decent seasons where the Cubs finished with winning records but well out of first place, they collapsed and finished last in 1925 at 68-86 — their first-eve last-place finish. This requires an explanation.
A lot of it was due to the presence of Rabbit Maranville, a Hall of Famer acquired in late 1924 (we’ll cover that deal in the next installment).
Maranville was never much of a factor as a player, appearing in only 75 games during an injury-plagued season. What was shocking was Rabbit’s appointment as Cubs manager July 6, after Bill Killefer’s firing. No one expected it, even Maranville himself. It had to be one of the weirder decisions made by any Cubs ownership, ever. The Cubs were already in seventh place, and Maranville’s tenure would be more chaotic than ineffective. Of the three managers that year, all would produce nearly identical winning percentages.
Rabbit won his first game at the helm, and spent that night in jail, along with two player/teammates, after fighting with a cabbie over a tip. Most of the goofy (and not so goofy) incidents associated with Maranville occurred during that season. They included pouring ice water over the heads of sleeping players, dangling traveling secretary John Seys from a hotel window, and anointing players and passengers alike from a cuspidor during a train trip. When informed that he was being relieved of his managerial position, he stood outside Wrigley Field pretending to hawk newspapers, shouting “Extra! Maranville fired!” He was succeeded by catcher George Gibson. By then the Cubs were already in last place, and finished there. Maranville was released by the Cubs at season’s end, and publicly swore off alcohol two years later. 1925 was his only managerial tenure in MLB. He was elected to the Hall of Fame, certainly not for his time with the Cubs, in 1954, six months after he passed away.
All of that was probably more excitement than it was worth. Apart from that, it was a quiet year for Cubs transactions, though a couple of bigger names were involved. As was typical in this era, a lot of minor league teams were involved.
May 9: Acquired Tommy Griffith from the Robins for a PTBNL
The Dodgers were known as “Robins” in this era, named after their manager Wilbert Robinson. The Cubs sent Bob Barrett to Brooklyn as the PTBNL May 22.
Griffith, an outfielder, had some decent years for the Reds and Dodgers years earlier, but by the time the Cubs got him he was 35. He batted .285/.346/.434 with seven home runs in 76 games for the Cubs, but was released at the end of the season.
Barrett, a third baseman, had played briefly for the Cubs the previous couple of years and batted .259/.289/.341 in 99 games for them.
This was a slight advantage for the Cubs, not that it helped them in the standings.
May 23: Acquired Mike Gonzalez and Howard Freigau from the Cardinals for Bob O’Farrell
Freigau, an infielder, batted .283/.335/.396 in parts of three seasons for the Cubs (2.2 bWAR). Gonzalez, a catcher, had been around — he made his MLB debut in 1912! — but managed to stick around for five years as a backup to Gabby Hartnett, batting .254/.309/.337 in 298 games, and played in two games of the 1929 World Series. The Cubs should be so lucky to have a backup catcher like that now.
O’Farrell, too, had been around for a very long time. He debuted with the Cubs at age 18 in 1915 and played in the 1918 World Series for them. But he was only 28 at the time of the deal and, as it turned out, the trade was a huge mistake.
O’Farrell batted .293/.371/.433 in 1926 and was great at throwing out base stealers, 51 percent — way more than any modern catcher. He was named NL MVP and, famously, threw out Babe Ruth trying to steal in Game 7 of the ‘26 World Series, winning that Series for St. Louis.
O’Farrell, a Chicago-area native (Waukegan), played TEN seasons in the majors after this trade, even returning to the Cubs briefly in 1934. After his retirement he opened a bowling alley in Waukegan and, per his SABR biography, he became a very good bowler himself:
He carried a 200+ average for many years while a member of the American Bowling Congress.
This was a bad trade for the Cubs. O’Farrell lived to 91, passing away in Waukegan in 1988.
May 26: Acquired Mandy Brooks from Columbus (American Association) for George Stueland, $35,000 cash and possibly a PTBNL
The original deal included an outfielder named C.L. Taylor, who had been selected by the Cubs in the 1924 Rule 5 Draft from a minor league team in Beaumont (Texas League). Taylor played in just eight games for the Cubs, going 0-for-6.
The Rule 5 Draft of the time (pre-1931) had MLB teams choosing directly from minor-league teams, so on June 2 the Commissioner’s office ruled that Taylor couldn’t be traded and instead had to be returned to Beaumont. It doesn’t appear the Cubs ever sent another player to Columbus in place of Taylor.
So it was basically Brooks for Stueland and the cash, which is equivalent to about $650,000 today. Stueland was nothing special, having posted a 5.73 ERA in 45 games (17 starts) for the Cubs from 1921-25.
Brooks, as I pointed out in the previous installment in this series, got off to a fantastic start with the Cubs, batting .389/.413/.806 with 25 RBI in his first 17 games. But then he cooled off, and got benched for Hack Wilson the following year.
October 9: Acquired Hack Wilson from Toledo (American Association) in the Rule 5 Draft
This might be the Cubs’ best Rule 5 pick ever.
Wilson had played a couple of undistinguished seasons for the Giants, but during a 1925 slump the Giants sent him to Toledo, then failed to exercise an option they had on him, under the rules of the time, after the season. This left him open to being selected and the Cubs got him for $5,000, about equivalent to $90,000 today.
It was still a bargain. Wilson batted .321/.406/.539 in 1926, led the NL in home runs (21) and walks (69) and finished fifth in MVP voting as the Cubs soared from last place to third. He would go on to have four more great years for the Cubs, lead them to the NL pennant in 1929 and be voted NL MVP in 1930.
The five years from 1926-30 were worth 30.5 bWAR for Wilson. Unfortunately, his drinking began to do him in the following year, along with his clashes with manager Rogers Horsby, and he was traded away.
Still, Wilson was one of the Cubs’ brightest stars of that era.
December 11: Acquired Jimmy Cooney from the Cardinals for Vic Keen
Vic Keen is, let’s admit, a great baseball name. He’d had some good years for the Cubs in the early 1920s, especially 1923, when he went 12-8 with a 3.00 ERA (3.3 bWAR). His performance had declined by ‘25 and I suppose the Cardinals thought they could “fix” him. They were wrong, he pitched poorly for them for two years and then didn’t appear in the majors again.
Cooney couldn’t hit much but he was a very good defender; as noted in the 1927 installment here, he pulled off an unassisted triple play, only a week or so before he was traded again.
In 1926 he led the major leagues in double plays (107) and fielding percentage (.972) and before you criticize the latter as a stat, please remember that a century ago errors were much more common, with fields and gloves not close to the way they are today. In 1926 Cooney made 24 errors — but that was a fantastic number in those days, that year six MLB shortstops made 40+ errors and two made more than 50!
This was a good deal, even though Cooney flamed out quickly.
Overall I’ll give these deals a “B” grade.