With Everything Going Wrong, Are We Prepared For A Cubs Resurgence?

As the last firework embers cascade down towards the grounds of Navy Pier, and we steamroll closer and closer to the MLB trade deadline like a Metra train on its way to Naperville, we still have an awful lot of baseball left to play. An awful lot of baseball and a rising tide of trade talks regarding the team’s most valuable assets are the expectations, if not hard to ignore. By the end of this month, names like Jameson Taillon, Cody Bellinger, Nico Hoerner, and even Justin Steele could be wearing different teams’ uniforms. 

Even though I’m awake, that’s a nightmare scenario, and here’s why: When you empty your cupboard, you’ve got nothing left to eat. Suppose hunger is a familiar feeling striking you right in the bones at this very moment. Consider this: We did the same thing in 2021: sold off every asset of value, wound up with Alfonso Rivas playing first base, and worst of all, it didn’t work.

Now, I’ll grant you that even if we sent all of the aforementioned players on their way to other cities, we’ve still got some dudes: Michael Busch, Shota Imanaga, and the currently injured Javier Assad spring to mind, but which of those guys do you want to build a team around? Which one of those guys plays the role of catalyst sparking “The next great Cubs team”? Busch is a revelation at first base, and though Shota Imanaga has taken the league by storm, he’s not only shown some serious vulnerabilities with his fastball command, he’s thirty years old. Do not misconstrue what I’ve said or will say as blind sunshine optimism, but understand that grass is not always greener. 

Create a green screen in your mind for a moment and imagine on it the backdrop to one of Disney’s iconic sports films, now that you’ve gone and done that, I’m sure you’ve envisioned the leader of that team giving an impassioned speech, rallying the other players to a dramatic comeback victory. Given their record and how they claim victory, the Brewers are the only real-life Disney movie this year, but that role player, the leader, the one who delivers the speech, is something the Cubs still need and would be devoid of if this next great sell-off occurs.

Regarding the leaders on this team, two names stand out above the rest in recent games and the long haul: Justin Steele and Ian Happ. Should that manifest, I can’t think of a player’s departure that would hurt more than Justin Steele. He’s only twenty-eight, has a 3.28 ERA, was a Cy Young finalist last season, and treats playing in front of the fans at Wrigley Field like the privilege it is. Players like Steele help the bleacher beer snake grow ever elongated. We’ll discuss at great length precisely who the Cubs should build around in a later piece, but whoever that may be, Justin Steele needs to be there to compliment him. He’s a leader.

Ian Happ is a leader, too. Now you know I’ve been on board for every stop along the Ian Happ train, but what you’re seeing in him right now is not just morale, it’s not just stability, it’s resolve. Watching him slug his team out of a potential sweep and, instead, into a resounding 10-2 victory over the Phillies on Independence Day was all the validation I needed to see in cementing his role as a cornerstone to the Cubs’ future success. The team we saw take the field on our nation’s birthday could plausibly win, say, 12 out of 14 of its next games. 

That’s just it, isn’t it? The Cubs’ shortcomings and near-misses never seem to be that far in proximity to their triumphs. They lost the series to Philadelphia; yes, they’ve lost all kinds of series to superior teams and far inferior ones. The Northsiders might be a bad team, but one with a few great players worth keeping around to help realize the club’s future aspirations. What will another haul of minor league prospects yield for this team? We supposedly already have an elite farm system loaded with the next heir apparent regime. So the question is, what do you want from this club? And, now that we’ve accepted failure as the inevitable outcome, what happens if we don’t fail?