Brace Yourselves: This Cubs Team Could Be Special

[RavenCub30]

Through the first couple weeks of spring training, the Chicago Cubs have been loads of fun to watch. Though we are truly only getting started, and accepting the fact that the outcomes of spring games bear relatively little relationship to the way things go once the bell rings, I'm starting to see this team differently.

Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-Imagn Images

It's easy to get lost in the fun of a hot start, even in the Cactus League. While this team will eventually hit brief slides, they've shown (even at this stage) that they'll never be out of a game. And that's what makes the 2025 Chicago Cubs a club with championship DNA. The true ceiling of a baseball team can often be found in how its veterans respond to what's happening around them. Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner, two of the more trusted voices in the organization, have expressed that this is the best roster Jed Hoyer has assembled since they've been here. 

In a perfect world, I'd be a Cubs beat reporter with clubhouse credentials, able to provide you a firsthand account of just what's manifesting before our eyes with the ball club. Though I don't exist in that station, I can tell you that from my vantage point, the Chicago Cubs are a baseball team who knows how good they are. Last year's gestation period, though painful, has brought forth a 2025 squad that rightfully spills over with confidence, exuberance, and talent. Throw in a healthy Matt Shaw, and this baseball team is in business. As division rivals like the Brewers and Reds will soon find out, this is a club against which you'll need to get all 27 outs before feeling a sense of confidence that you might prevail. 

Truthfully, I wouldn't be writing this article had the Cubs not gotten off to the start they have this spring. What I can tell you, though, is that in examining this team more closely because of their impressive win streak, I've come to believe that they possess what's necessary to be good all year. Kevin Alcántara, who has a .712 OPS this spring, looks right at home in a Cubs uniform and emits more than a youthful optimism that he could be something; he knows he is something. That comes from raw talent, good managing, and a staff in place that develops players on schedule. In one of my first articles for this site nearly a year ago, I spoke about trusting Craig Counsell because (though he's not flashy) he knows his stuff. Almost a year on, it looks like he just might.

Playoff baseball will return to the North Side of Chicago this fall, if for no other reason than the fact that they got markedly better, and their division rivals didn't. What the rest of this division did this offseason is akin to Austin Powers holding on a low hand in blackjack. It's ok to let this early success augment your hope for 2025, even though none of the wins count just yet.

View full article