Things have started to feel a little bit different surrounding the Chicago Cubs as of late.
Nothing for the next decade is going to match the pressure surrounding the team before ending the curse in 2016, but the Cubs fanbase is understandably beginning to grow restless. Since a return trip to the NLCS in 2017, Chicago has yet to even win a single playoff game, missing the postseason entirely in five of the last seven years including the four consecutive previous seasons.
After making Craig Counsell the highest paid manager in the history of baseball a year ago, the Cubs posted the same 83-79 record from the season prior, still finishing 10 games behind Counsell’s former team and with a similarly sour taste in their mouths.
This offseason, things have changed however.
There has been a seemingly renewed urgency to put a winning product on the field both from ownership and from Jed Hoyer. After trading for a new superstar in Kyle Tucker and at the very least making a real run at Alex Bregman, there is clearly a desire to get it done this year and at least get back to contending in the National League.
Hoyer knows his job is on the line, and with potentially just one season with Tucker – unless Chicago shockingly decides to pony up a year from now – now is the time to win, and win big.
The NL Central is ripe for the taking with a weakened Milwaukee Brewers, a rebuilding St. Louis Cardinals, and two promising yet inexperienced groups in the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.
With an improved roster comes an increase in expectations, and there really is no excuse for the Cubs to not get it done this season and at a minimum win the division.
Tucker along with a re-tooled bullpen, increased depth in the starting rotation, a veteran stopgap at third base coupled with endless talent on the way from the minor leagues at numerous positions put this team in the best place they have been for a very long time both now and in the future, but that doesn’t mean they can rest on their laurels now.
Chicago enters the 2025 season with a wide open window, and it’s worth asking if they can’t get it done now, then when can they get it done? Nobody will call the season this massive failure if they win the division and are ultimately unable to get past the ascending superteam Los Angeles Dodgers, but there’s not a reason they can’t at least get there.
The Cubs have the best opportunity they have had in front of them in a very long time, and it’s long past time they take advantage and get to the next level.
If they don’t, there will be consequences, but perhaps the most severe of them will be shaken faith from a fanbase who deserves to see a winner. The pieces are all there, now it’s up to Chicago to put those pieces together and take the next step.
