The Chicago Cubs have missed the playoffs for five consecutive years and haven’t made the playoffs in a full 162-game season since 2018.
The Cubs have lost out on winning the National League Central for two straight years with their divisional rivals the Milwaukee Brewers taking home the title in that span.
With the division as a whole up for grabs and the Brewers taking a noticeable step back with having notable subtractions in shortstop Willy Adames and 2x All-Star closer Devin Williams being off the team.
The Cubs have a chance to swoop in and knock the Brewers off their mantle and take the Central with the Cubs and Brewers squaring off in a new divisional rivalry that will be fun to watch.
The I-94 rivalry
The Cubs and Brewers rivalry has been around since 1998 when the Cubs and Brewers first met as divisional rivals. The Brewers currently hold a five-game advantage over the Cubs in their overall record with it currently sitting at 224-219.
The Cubs have a real chance to dethrone the Brewers this season since the Brewers didn’t add much to their roster this offseason, whereas the Cubs have made it their mission to bolster their roster to be more competitive this year. The Brewers lost their premier shortstop Willy Adames to free agency, and they traded away one of the better closers in the game Devin Williams with him set to be a free agent after this season.
These two losses alone hamper the Brewer’s chances at repeating as NL Central winners given, they have done nothing in the way of adding the talent back to compete. The addition of Kyle Tucker to be a superstar and provide thump to the Cubs lineup certainly helps bolster the Cub’s chances at taking down the Brewers but also adding a guy like Jon Berti to be a valuable bench option will help as well.
Will Leitch of MLB.com wrote about the Cubs-Brewers rivalry in his latest piece describing all the premier rivalries to watch for this season.
“The two teams have had very different offseason, with the Cubs bringing in Kyle Tucker and the Brewers shipping out Devin Williams. But if the Brewers weren’t going to let trading Corbin Burnes stop them from beating the Cubs again, they’re certainly not going to be daunted by trading their closer. This is some real Midwestern spice.”
Who has the better roster right now the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers
When looking at the pitching staffs of both the Brewers and the Cubs the Cubs have a slight advantage over the Brewers even given, that they will be using a six-man rotation for this season. The Cubs have two potential Cy Young candidates Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele who will anchor the Cubs staff while the Brewers only have Brandon Woodruff being the only one to have a top-five finish in the Cy Young voting.
The lineups are where the race becomes a little tighter, but the Cubs have a slight advantage with the addition of Kyle Tucker. The Brewers do have more thump with guys like Christian Yelich, William Contreras, and Rhys Hoskins all being capable of mashing 30+ homers while the Cubs just have Tucker being the only one capable of that feat with Ian Happ showing he may be able to get there with hitting a career-high 25 HRs last season.
This is going to be fun.
With the season fast approaching and spring training just around the corner, it is getting more and more exciting to see baseball back on television again.
The Cubs-Brewers rivalry will be one of the better rivalries to watch this season with both being almost equally matched with the Cubs holding a slight advantage.
The Cubs first meet the Brewers next season on May 2 when they have to travel to Milwaukee to face off in a three-game set.
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