The Chicago Cubs have set a benchmark the last two seasons of being good, but night quite good enough.
In both 2023 and 2024, the club posted 83-79 seasons and came up short of post-season play. This is not good enough, of course, if the goal is to build a winning atmosphere in an organization used to NOT having a winning atmosphere.
The front office has taken some strides in building and bettering this year, but the question will always be– were they enough?
Chicago Cubs Moves
The biggest move this offseason was the acquisition of Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros for Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski, and prospect Cam Smith. Ultimately, Tucker may just be a one-season addition to the team, as he will be free agency-bound after 2025, but one full season of Tucker is a great thing.
Trading away Cody Bellinger in a salary dump to the New York Yankees for reliever Cody Poteet will either end up being a plus or a minus, depending on what the Cubs do with the money saved by dealing Bellinger.
They also traded for reliever Eli Morgan, who should prove to be an asset to the Cubs bullpen.
Via free agency, the club picked up rehabbed starter Matthew Boyd and backup catcher Carson Kelly to give some much-needed relief and mentorship to Miguel Amaya.
It’s been a good offseason, but there’s supposedly more to come.
Projecting Big Things
As things are, however, there are plenty of people seeing big things when it comes to the Chicago Cubs in 2025.
Dan Szymborski of Fangraphs, for example read the tea leaves of the ZiPs projections and had to do a double take because things looked TOO good. He has the Cubs winning the NL Central and turning some heads with just how good they may look in doing so:
Per Szymborski:
“To get this out of the way, ZiPS absolutely adores Chicago’s lineup, from top to bottom and every which way around. ZiPS and the Cubs have been on the same page before — the projections for Shota Imanaga last winter had me proclaiming that his deal was the offseason’s best signing — but the projections haven’t been this high on the lineup since the team’s World Series contention days.
Now, a lot of that is defense, with Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, and Pete Crow-Armstrong each having elite defensive projections. But there’s a lot of bat in there as well, with six starters projected for a 100 OPS+ or better, and two of the three who aren’t — Swanson and PCA — bolstered by their aforementioned defense.
Indeed, the system’s love for the Cubs was so intense that, as with the 2023 Diamondbacks (a team ZiPS absolutely drooled over), I made sure to double-check that something funny wasn’t going on by projecting the team using an older version of ZiPS.”
More Work Needed
Despite the projections, the Cubs still have some significant work ahead of them, even in a weakened NL Central division.
Pitching depth remains a focus for the front office. It’s likely that the team will add a quality arm or two before spring training, perhaps one for the rotation and one for the bullpen.
There’s also a big question mark at third base, overshadowed by great hope that top prospect Matt Shaw will be the answer.
Depth at first base will be an issue if Michael Busch gets injured or falls apart.
The team would also like to add a solid fourth outfielder-level outfielder, just in case.
Still, things do look good…and that’s definitely a positive.
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