It Might Not Feel Like It, But the 2026 Cubs Had a Good Season

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Depending on when you're scrolling through this article, there are only a handful of baseball games remaining in 2026. Whether the Brewers or Rays win the Fall Classic, a prolonged lockout looms, putting "wait 'til next year" in some question. It's an uneasy time for Cubs fans, who are digesting a meal that ended on a sour note: the 2026 season, with all its ups and (excruciating) downs.

Did Craig Counsell's club accomplish what they set out to do this year? Of course not. That's especially apparent when you hold it up against the resounding success of the team from the town he left behind. Winning it all or not can't be the sole criterion, though. Cubs fans are right to be disappointed, but they need not be downtrodden. The Lovable Losers can't quite shake that sobriquet, but 2026 contained plenty of good things amid the frustrations.

A fairer standard for measuring a season is the simplest test: did they win more than they lost? For the fourth year in a row, the Cubs passed that muster. Finishing with a record of 89-73, the North Siders were in playoff position most of the year and made it to the tournament relatively comfortably. On two separate occasions (although both came very early), Chicago rattled off 10-game winning streaks, humming along in a fashion that suggested they were the class of professional baseball.

Concluding on the final day of September, the club's "October run" lasted just two days out on the West Coast, in San Diego. Neither game even offered much to feel excited or hopeful about. Perhaps a heavy workload brought on by a pitching staff ravaged by injuries caught up to Matthew Boyd, who looked worn and shaky in his Wild Card Series start. However, this still marked the Cubs' second-straight playoff appearance. The staff was out of depth, and even their best arms seemed out of gas.

There were, however, some heroic performances this season that will be remembered for years, even if they couldn't sustain themselves into the postseason. No effort from any individual player was more Herculean than that of presumptive National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong. At age 24, Crow-Armstrong became the best player in the majors and carried the Cubs to the playoffs almost on his own. The campaign he orchestrated (a 40/40 season while delivering the elite defense we've come to expect) was one of the most enjoyable to watch from an individual Cubs player.

We should all want more. Hopefully, Cade Horton. Ben Brown and the full complement of the squad's best will demonstrate the team's full potential in 2027 and beyond. But in the meantime, please don't let good be the enemy of great. Acknowledge the failures of what was left unsettled, and prepare for the dawn of a new day.