Cubs Week In Review: The Winning Continues While Starters Get More Work

[RavenCub30]

While spring training baseball can give squads misleading premonitions of summer success, part of the benefit of these tune-ups is the team knowing when to gradually increase the workload. With the Cub's special regular season tilt with the Dodgers just over two weeks away, Craig Counsell's gradual release of duties to his ball club is going, to say the least, marvelously. 

Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

As in the regular season, new storylines emerge each week for the Cubs and, of course, the rest of Major League Baseball. In week one, it was the staggeringly short ramp-up time to the regular season, how Kyle Tucker would look and feel, and who, if anyone, would become a clear favorite at third base. This week, the storyline was longer work for starting pitchers like Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, and veteran righty Colin Rea, who reunited with his former and now current skipper. After nearly two weeks of unbeaten baseball in gorgeous Arizona, to paraphrase Cubby play-by-play announcer Jon Sciambi, the news is good for each storyline thus far. 

Like an orchestra hitting each note in perfect unison at the Lyric Opera House, the Chicago Cubs have struck a chord with how well they're playing in spring ball and might be building habits translatable to regular season prosperity. 

This week, a wave of activity took place inside the organization, including the club optioning Cody Poteet to Triple-A Iowa, among others. But perhaps the best news from the Cubby camp was the return of 25-year-old Ben Brown, the North Sider's young right-handed pitcher who was sidelined last season with what turned out to be a benign bone tumor in his neck. He saw his first action since last summer in a split-squad game in which he took the bump versus the Kansas City Royals. Backed by an offense (minus Matt Shaw and Nico Hoerner) that, to this point, has not been shut out, Brown gave up four hits, struck out two, and allowed only one run in 2.1 innings of work. Now that he's back, the trick for Tommy Hottovy and this pitching staff will be to help Brown develop more diversity in his arsenal. With the depth this team has on the mound, his development should be more than an empty endeavor.

A team full of capable hurlers can provide a steady hand at the wheel in an offensive struggle and significantly alter an opponent's game plans. And that's not limited to what players the opposing manager rolls out, but it strips any mental advantage they might have. Since his surprise star turn in 2024, Shota Imanaga, one of the Cubbies' Tokyo Series starters, has been a pitcher the league spends a non-zero amount of time contemplating. He saw his most extended action of the spring this week. Going nearly three innings, the goal right now is to get Imanaga to resemble some measure of the dominant control he showed off for much of last season. It's tough to say how this abridged preparation time might affect some of his mechanics and those of his fellow starters. However, Imanaga's intangibles, such as his undeniable confidence on the mound, seem just as prominent as ever. 

I've echoed this sentiment since the start of spring, but the sheer balance of the 2025 Chicago Cubs is its greatest asset and will keep them at the top of the National League Central Division by early October. I'm not saying this team will go wire to wire, win the World Series, and conjure up an unimaginable season even the writers at Disney would call far-fetched. Still, I am saying this club, especially if it gets and stays fully healthy, will be one the city talks about for years to come. 

View full article