The Chicago Cubs opened themselves up to scrutiny when they declared themselves “all in” in their quest to make the playoffs for the first time since the abbreviated 2020 season.
Before any major moves, any free agent signings or trades, the Cubs were flat-out saying that they were prepared to field the best team possible in pursuit of postseason play. That’s a pretty gutsy move right there. It’s not so smart, though, if you make that declaration and aren’t 100% dedicated to actually putting together that best team possible.
And, by the moves they made this offseason, the Cubs have not shown themselves to be a team throwing everything they have at winning big.
The Chicago Cubs Offseason, Aside From Kyle Tucker
Sure, the Kyle Tucker trade was a legitimately big move, arguably the biggest addition since they picked up Jon Lester prior to the 2015 season.
But the Cubs weren’t heading into 2025 one player away from turning the franchise around– and, even if they were, the addition of Tucker was immediately followed by the salary-dump subtraction of Cody Bellinger.
The team needed more than Tucker minus Bellinger and, financially, they had the revenue and the flexibility to add at least a couple more desperately needed impact players. Instead, they whiffed on closer Tanner Scott, made a token stab at Alex Bregman, and never even tried to sign the high-end, front-of-rotation starter they said they wanted.
As the offseason dust settles, the Cubs entire winter/spring has come down to Tucker and a serious of half-measures and gambles. Once again, there is absolutely no margin for error given the realities of the Cubs roster. Everyone will have to play up to their absolute full potential– and beyond– for the team to succeed
Jed Hoyer Speaks
On Wednesday, in the first part of a Q & A with The Athletic, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer talks about the tightrope the team must walk in 2025.
Per Hoyer:
“I think the concerns are always — how do I say this the right way — the National League is really challenging and when I look at our team, we have to play to our projections or better. … That’s always the concern. We have to stay healthy. We have to have guys outperform expectations. There are only a couple of teams out there that I feel like can sort of potentially be a little bit below projections and still make the playoffs. The Dodgers can have some things go wrong. I feel like for us, we don’t have a lot of margin for error.
We need guys to improve, we need to stay healthy, we need to play clean baseball. I think that the way this team is built — we have a really good defensive team, we should run the bases well — we need to do all those things really well. We don’t have the ability to sort of muddle through and just show up and make the postseason. We have to have a really good season to do that.”
And all of that boils down to the fact that, maybe, all the Cubs really did this offseason was turn themselves into a team just good enough to make the playoffs.
Frustration…
Technically, that’s not really a lie when it comes to their “all in” declaration. They really did only say that their goal was to MAKE the playoffs.
But, obviously, the goal should be to WIN in the playoffs and one can’t look at this 2025 team, as solid as it appears to be on paper, and say that they’re World Series material.
The frustrating thing for Cubs fans is that, revenue-wise, they are the fourth most lucrative team in baseball, not really all that far behind the second-most lucrative Los Angeles Dodgers. They should be one of the teams making big offseason moves to widen the margin of error in pursuit of titles.
Instead, the president of baseball operations is forced to work around ownership’s “constraints” and left to hope for the best.
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