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Image courtesy of © Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Welcome to part nine of North Side Baseball’s offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find the first eight parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 When we left off, the National League and the American League had come to an agreement to end the regular season early, in order to play the World Series. This allowed baseball players to respect the 'work or fight' rule, which required all draft-eligible men to engage in essential work, or register to be drafted into the army. The Cubs, who finished 84-45-2, were set to face off with the Red Sox (75-51) for the championship in early September. Today, we’ll take a look at the start of the series. Game One As the teams prepared for Game 1, the Cubs were viewed as the favorites to win the whole series, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. The New York Times concurred: “when the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox clash in the opening game of the [World Series] at Comiskey Park in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, baseball fans who base their hopes and figures on form will be sure to favor the National League club as the winner.” The Times went on to predict that the Cubs’ left-handed pitchers, specifically Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler, would play a huge role in the series, neutralizing Boston’s slugging left-handed hitters Babe Ruth and Harry Hooper. This made it an easy decision for the Cubs to start Vaughn in Game 1. He went up against Ruth, who was still both pitching and hitting at the time. After a one-day delay due to rain, Game 1 happened on Sept. 5, with the Red Sox triumphing 1-0. Both Ruth and Vaughn went the distance, with Ruth striking out four and allowing six hits, while Vaughn gave up five hits and struck out six. The lone run was scored in the top of the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Dave Shean, the Red Sox strung together back-to-back singles from George Whitman and Stuffy McInnis with one out to bring Shean home. The Times was quick to note the apparent lack of excitement around the Series, given the circumstances: Nonetheless, the World Series trucked onward. Game Two If a 1-0 game one was considered boring, Game 2 was anything but. In a pitching matchup of Bullet Joe Bush against Lefty Tyler, the Cubs got out to an early 3-0 lead in the second inning on hits from Charlie Deal, Bill Killefer, and the aforementioned Tyler. However, it was what happened after the inning that caused some excitement. According to SABR, Otto Knabe, the Cubs’ first base coach, had been heckling Bush during the Cubs’ rally. Heinie Wagner, the third base coach for the Red Sox, met Knabe out on the field in between innings. Things got heated between the two, who ended up in the Cubs’ dugout. I’ll let The New York Times take it from here: “In a jiffy the two coaches were locked in an embrace which was not one of affection. Like a bird of prey, Knabe perched on top of Wagner as he fell to the ground. They were merrily mauling each other all over the dugout when Claude Hendrix and other Cub players pulled Knabe off his tormentor.” By the time the Boston players reached the dugout to further intervene, “Wagner emerged all mussed up and excited. From the appearance of his uniform it was plain that Knabe had brushed up the floor of the dugout with Wagner, for his uniform looked as if he had been repairing a flivver. The umpires volunteered soothing words to the combatants and a truce was declared.” [Ed. note: I was wondering, and I bet you were, too. A flivver is an old car or aircraft, usually beaten up and worn down. It's a cousin to 'jalopy,' which is only marginally more familiar to our modern ears and eyes but was certainly more common in its heyday.] The game remained 3-0 until the ninth inning. After two leadoff triples made the game 3-1, McInnis grounded back to Tyler, who was still in the game. He completed the out at first without the run scoring. Per SABR, after a walk to Everett Scott, Boston manager Ed Barrow thought about pinch-hitting with Ruth, who wasn’t in the starting lineup due to a left-handed pitcher being on the mound for the Cubs. But Ruth never got a chance. Jean Dubuc pinch-hit instead, and after he struck out, Wally Schang swung (schwung?) at the first pitch and popped out to Charlie Hollocher to win the game for the Cubs and tie the series at one game apiece. Game Three According to Times, most figured the Cubs would be starting Claude Hendrix in Game 3. Instead, surprisingly, they opted for Vaughn again, which also meant that Ruth remained on the bench. On the Boston side, Carl Mays got the start. Vaughn worked out of trouble in the second, though the Red Sox would get to him in the fourth. Following a strikeout of Amos Strunk to start the inning, George Whiteman was hit by a pitch in the next plate appearance. Singles from McInnis and Schang scored the first run of the game; that brought Everett Scott to the plate. Scott laid down a bunt that, according to the Times, Vaughn fielded cleanly, but he simply didn’t throw the ball anywhere. “With the ball in his hand, his arm outstretched ready to throw it, some unknown influence seemed to stay the poised throwing wing. He was within half a dozen feet of McInnis as he scored from third, and was facing toward first base, but he held the ball as if it was a chunk of gold.” This brought home the second run of the game to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. A double from Charlie Pick and a single from Bill Killefer in the fifth cut the lead in half at 2-1, where the score remained until the last inning. With Mays still in the game, both Dode Paskert and Fred Merkle grounded out to start the inning. Then, Pick singled and stole second base, putting the tying run just 180 feet away with two outs in the ninth inning. The next pitch from Mays got past the catcher, Schang, and allowed Pick to take third base on a close play. After Pick slid in safely, the ball trickled away from the third baseman, Jackie Thomas. Pick dashed for home with the potential tying run. Alas: “Straight and true and as swift as a bullet the ball went from Thomas’s hand into the waiting mitt of Schang at the plate. As Pick came tumbling into the final bag, stretching his left foot far out as to hook the corner of the rubber platter, the ball clapped against the catcher’s glove, and Schang tagged the runner with the ball. ‘You’re out,’ yelled Umpire Klem, and right then and there the Cubs’ chances in that game were gone forever.” Just like that, the Cubs lost 2-1, and were also down 2-1 in the World Series, when mere seconds ago, fans were ablaze at the potential of a tie game as Pick dashed home. It wasn’t to be. The final four games of the series were set to be played at Fenway Park in Boston, and the Cubs now found themselves in a situation where they needed to win three of those games. Suddenly, their backs were against the wall. View full article

Image courtesy of Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons Welcome to part eight of North Side Baseball’s offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find the first seven parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Today, we’ll be doing another player profile, this time on the great Hippo Vaughn. By FanGraphs WAR, Vaughn is the best left-handed pitcher to ever don a Cubs uniform, and he was an essential member of that 1918 Cubs team, leading the pitching staff in fWAR. His 1.74 ERA that season was second among qualified pitchers, behind only Hall of Famer Walter Johnson. Vaughn never made the Hall, but deserves to be recognized for his contributions to the Chicago Cubs. James Leslie “Hippo” Vaughn was born on April 9, 1888, in Weatherford, Texas, a town located about 25 miles outside of Fort Worth. According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, the young lefty began pitching professionally in the Texas League, where he was eventually recognized and acquired by the New York Highlanders—or, as you likely now know them, the Yankees. Vaughn would become the youngest Opening Day starting pitcher in Yankees history in 1910, at 22 years and five days old—a record that he still holds today. He would go on to post a stellar 1.83 ERA in the 1910 season, but following a more difficult 1911 season that saw him put up a 4.39 ERA, Vaughn was sold to the Washington Nationals, and then to Kansas City of the American Association. After a couple of impressive seasons there, Vaughn wound up on the Chicago Cubs, and it was there where his career really took off. Following a brief debut of 56 innings in 1913, from 1914 to 1920, he never had a season wherein he posted less than 3.8 fWAR, and he never produced an ERA higher than 2.87. From 1914 to 1920, per FanGraphs, his 33.6 WAR was third in baseball, behind only two future Hall of Famers: Walter Johnson and Grover Alexander. The latter, ironically, was Vaughn’s teammate in Chicago for a bit. Vaughn’s 2.16 ERA over those seven seasons was fourth. His 143 wins was third. His 165 complete games, 2,051 innings pitched, and 1,071 strikeouts all also ranked third, behind the aforementioned greats. Any way you slice it, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball for a time. There is no greater illustration of how dominant Vaughn could be than the game he started on May 2, 1917. It featured him against Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds. Both pitchers threw no-hitters through nine innings, though, of course, the score was tied at 0-0, so the game persisted into the tenth. In a retrospective on the game from 1953, Arthur Daley at The New York Times wrote the following about Vaughn: “Vaughn, perhaps, pitched a mite better than Toney because only one member of the Reds even stroked the ball beyond the infield.” Daley would go on to describe the top of the tenth inning, when Vaughn finally allowed a hit (and, unfortunately, a run) that led to a 1-0 Reds win. “Larry Kopf sliced a roller between the gloves of Fred Merkle at first and Larry Doyle at second. It was the first hit of the game," Daley wrote. "Then Hal Chase flied out deeply to [Cy] Williams—except that Williams dropped the ball for an error, as Kopf raced to third.” That brought up Jim Thorpe, who hit a little tapper out in front of home plate. Vaughn, likely knowing that he would have a tough play on Thorpe, a former Olympic gold medalist in the classic pentathlon and decathlon, threw home. Art Wilson, the catcher, never saw it coming, and the ball “shot past him to the backstop and Kopf pattered home from third base with the only run of the game.” Toney retired the Cubs without a hit in the bottom half of the tenth, completing his no-hitter and wrapping up the win for the Reds. Still, this is the only known game in baseball history where two pitchers both had no-hitters through nine innings of baseball. Unfortunately for Hippo, who was given that nickname due to his large stature for a player at the time at 6’4”, 215 lbs, he is also commonly known for the way that he left baseball. He was not his usual, dominant self during the 1921 season, and after a start against the New York Giants on July 9, Vaughn disappeared. “Jim walked from the pitchers’ box to the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds on Saturday after being belted for successive home runs by Frank Snyder and Phil Douglas and he has not been seen since by Manager Johnny Evers or any other member of the Chicago Cubs,” the Times reported on July 11. The article said that should Hippo Vaughn return to the team, he would be suspended for his unexplained absence. According to his SABR biography, the Cubs were later ready to reinstate the pitcher, but Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball, refused to do so, and suspended Vaughn for the remainder of the season. Interestingly enough, the Times reported in October of that same year that Vaughn was missing again, with his wife having asked the Chicago police to look for him. The same wife, Edna, filed for divorce in 1920, the previous year, only to later drop the proceedings sometime after Edna’s father stabbed Vaughn. Perhaps this all helps explain the sudden decline of Vaughn, who went from one of the best pitchers in the National League in the 1920 season, to a pitcher with a 6.01 ERA in the 1921 season. He would never appear in Major League Baseball again, despite bouncing around several lower-level leagues. Arguably, Vaughn is the best left-handed pitcher that the Chicago Cubs organization has ever seen. Between the double no-hitter and his performance both during and leading up to the 1918 World Series (we’ll get to that in more detail in a future article), his on-field feats deserve greater remembrance. View full article

Image courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Photo Archives Welcome to part seven of North Side Baseball’s offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find the first six parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Last time, we left off with the World Series in question. The Cubs began August 3.5 games up on the second-place New York Giants. However, with World War I ongoing in Europe, it was declared in July that all draft-eligible men must either sign up for war-related work, or risk being drafted to fight in the war. Of course, this included baseball players. The National League was considering ending its season, and was scheduled to discuss the matter on August 1. Ending the Season Early According to The New York Times, the National League first agreed to end the season early, with the American League later following suit. The two leagues were looking to end their respective regular seasons at the end of August, with a World Series to be played not long after. The issue, according to an August 3 article in The Times, was whether or not the government would approve. “After some discussion, the owners agreed to put the situation to a test by agreeing to close the season Labor Day and then starting a World Series Sept. 4 if permitted by the government.” The National League and American League were essentially hoping that the government would allow for a special exemption for the players playing in the World Series. The work or fight order was scheduled to take effect at the end of the month, and if it still applied to the players in the World Series, they would be at risk of being drafted to fight in the war smack dab in the middle of the championship. National League Champions The Cubs held steady at the start of August, starting 11-7-1 after a doubleheader sweep over the Philadelphia Phillies on August 17. The Giants, though, were in free fall. By the time the Cubs suited up on August 18, they were eight games up on the Giants, who started the month just 6-10. Needing just one win to clinch the pennant on August 25, the Cubs hosted the Brooklyn Robins for a doubleheader. Game one featured little-used Roy Walker against future Hall of Famer Rube Marquard. Led by two hits from Dode Paskert and Bill Killefer, as well as RBIs from Max Flack and Charlie Hollocher, the Cubs won 5-3 and clinched the National League pennant. Over in the American League, the Babe Ruth-led Boston Red Sox were wrapping up their impressive regular season by being officially crowned American League champions. The World Series was set to feature the Cubs vs. the Red Sox. But would it be played? When would it be played? Questions were still abound. Finalizing World Series Plans After submitting for the government to allow for the players competing in the World Series to be exempt from the work or fight rule, The Times officially reported on August 23 that this was approved. “Secretary of War Baker placed the approval of the Government on the [World Series] yesterday. He announced that one of the principal reasons he [believed] the baseball classic should be played was because the American [soldiers] in France are intensely interested in the results.” The Times continued their reporting on August 25 by stating that “the series is expected to contribute between $30,000 and $40,000” to war charities. Admission to the series was also set to be reduced “in order to enable patrons to attend the games at reasonable prices.” Box seats were to be sold for $3 per ticket, down from $5 the previous year, grandstand seats were going to go for $1.50, pavilion seats for $1, and bleacher seats for 50 cents (oh, how times have changed). With the Red Sox having clinched the American League pennant, by the end of the month it was time to officially plan the World Series. It would begin September 5. The first three games would be played in Chicago at Comiskey Park, with the last four games being played in Boston at Fenway Park. Instead of playing at the Cubs’ usual home of Weeghman Park, the team opted to play at Comiskey Park because it had a larger capacity, 30,000, compared to just 16,000 at Weeghman. The dates, teams, and venues were set. The war-related negotiations were over. The Cubs and Red Sox were all set and ready to face off in the 1918 World Series. View full article

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Image courtesy of Bettmann Archive/CNN Welcome to part six of North Side Baseball’s offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find the first five parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 In part six, we’ll examine how the Cubs performed in the month of July, including a wild, 21-inning affair. Another Showdown with the Giants The Cubs started July by taking five of seven from St. Louis to set up another series with the second-place New York Giants, this time a five-game set. With the Giants having started the month 2-4, the North Siders had a nice four-game cushion over New York in the National League standings. The Cubs took the first game 1-0, entirely thanks to Hippo Vaughn. The left-handed hurler threw 12 shutout innings and then drove in the walk-off run in the bottom of the 12th with a single. Shohei who? The second game was a 6-1 rout in favor of Chicago, with Phil Douglas throwing nine innings of one-run baseball and two hits and two RBIs from second-baseman Rollie Zeider. This put the Cubs six games up on the second-place Giants. The six-game lead would be short-lived. After splitting a double header the next day, the Giants came back from down 6-0 to win in 10 innings on a home run from Jim Thorpe. Yes, the very same Jim Thorpe that won two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics. Despite the couple of losses to finish the series, the Cubs, at 50-23, were still five games up on the Giants and firmly in control of the National League. They proceeded to take four of five games from the Boston Braves, and then dropped two of the first three games in a four-game set with the Philadelphia Phillies. Game four of that series would pit Lefty Tyler against Milt Watson. A Historical Pitching Performance July 17, 1918 started as a normal baseball game. After the Phillies went three up, three down in the top half of the first inning, the Cubs jumped out to a lead in the bottom half. Max Flack walked, Charlie Hollocher singled him over to third, and Flack came around to score on a ground out from Les Mann. The Phillies tied things up in the fourth. An error from Hollocher put Cy Williams on base to start the inning, and he was plated after singles by Fred Luderus and Gavy Cravath. That next run wouldn’t be scored for 16 more innings. The Cubs managed to get runners into scoring position in the fifth, sixth, seventh, 10th, 12th, 13th, 15th, and 19th innings; however, every time, they failed to get even one run across. The Phillies, on the other hand, went without a baserunner in eight of the 17 innings following the fourth inning. Both Tyler and Watson were absolutely dealing. The game was going so long that, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, the umpires informed the teams that the game would be called at 7 P.M. so the Phillies could catch their 8 P.M. train. As the 21st inning got underway, the Cubs got a leadoff single from the seldom-used Turner Barber, who had pinch hit for Zeider. After Bill Killefer got hit by a pitch, the Cubs called on another pinch hitter, this time Bill McCabe, who would notch just 51 plate appearances for the Cubs that season. McCabe laid down a bunt that ended up going for a hit, which set up Flack with the bases loaded, who ended the game after 21 brutal innings. Per SABR, the game lasted approximately four hours. Both Lefty Tyler and Milt Watson pitched the whole thing. Tyler gave up 13 hits and one walk in his 21 innings pitched, allowing just one unearned run. Watson gave up 19 hits and four walks in his 20 innings pitched. Perhaps exhausted from a 21-inning marathon, the Cubs would go on to lose seven of 11 games to close the month. Despite a small rough patch, the team still stood at 60-32 as the calendar flipped to August. They were 3.5 games up on the second-place Giants, and with only two months left in the season, they had to feel good about their chances of playing in the World Series, which, back then, simply pitted the best team in the American League against the best team in the National League. Unfortunately, World War I loomed. Work or Fight At the start of July, Secretary of War Newton Baker issued a “work or fight” order. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, this meant that all draft-eligible men must sign up for war-related work, or they risked being drafted to fight in the war. The New York Times wrote on July 20 that “both leagues will make an attempt to play out their schedules this season and many of the teams hope that they will be able to get some of their players exempted until the season ends because of the heavy contracts under which they are playing. However, baseball officials believe that under the ruling of Secretary Baker, no time exemption will be granted to any of the players.” The Times followed that up with more reporting on July 31. “While President John K. Turner of the National League is not in favor of playing a [World Series] with the American League this season, he is willing to abide by the decision of the clubs owners of the organization, and has called a meeting in [New York] on next Saturday at 10 o’clock.” With the fate of many of the league’s players up in the air, the National League was considering simply ending its season, with a meeting to happen in early August to discuss how to move forward. While still a far cry from the worldwide issues happening at the time, this was surely a devastating possibility for a Cubs team that currently sat in first place. View full article

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images Thousands at Soldier Field on Saturday night gathered and cheered to celebrate the biggest news in Chicago sports: the Cubs signed Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175 million deal. I have since discovered that there was also something else going on at the time that resulted in that celebration at Soldier Field, but hey, I am sure this was a nice cherry on top for some. This marks what could be a huge turning point for the Cubs and their front office. For one, Bregman just received the largest average annual value on a contract in team history. Second, a Jed Hoyer-led front office went out and outbid other teams for a guy that they wanted. Finally, they flexed some financial might. It’s not just the use of financial resources that is encouraging, either. Per Mark Feinsand, the Cubs are deferring $70 million of the contract, which will bring the average annual value for luxury tax purposes down slightly. This could help the Cubs stay below the competitive balance tax for this coming season, and finally signals a willingness from the club to take advantage of a modern, club-friendly free agency tactic in deferrals. What makes Bregman the guy that the Cubs were finally willing to do all of this for? It was reported by Patrick Mooney of The Athletic that “although he will be 32 in March, Bregman still lit up the front office’s projection systems as a Gold Glove defender and an elite right-handed hitter.” There are reasons to think that the third-baseman has the type of profile that could age well. Clearly, the Cubs’ would agree. For starters, plate discipline is one of Bregman’s premier skills, and this is a skill that a player typically retains as they age. Perhaps more importantly, a recent blog post at Driveline Baseball concluded that pull-air percentage is one of the skills that ages the best in an offensive player. Pulling the ball in the air has long been a hallmark of the former Astro's game, including a 24.4 percent pull-air percentage just last year, which ranked 37th in baseball, per Baseball Savant. If Bregman can continue doing that, you have to feel pretty good about this contract. On the flip side, swing speed and exit velocity, two skills that don’t typically age well, have never been highlight skills for Bregman. As noted by Davy Andrews at FanGraphs, he has never hit a ball 110 mph, which 308 MLB players did last season. One could look at that and conclude that the veteran is walking a thin line. If he loses even any bat speed, he’s toast. You could also argue that he already knows how to succeed without bat speed, or that he has no bat speed to lose. Clearly, and as reported above, we know where the Cubs’ projection systems stand on that debate. As for the validity of the Cubs’ projection systems, well, let me go ahead and defend those. In the offseason after the 2022 season, the Cubs needed a shortstop, and all four of Carlos Correa, Dansby Swanson, Trea Turner, and Xander Bogaerts were available. The Cubs, of course, signed Swanson. He received the least amount of total money amongst the four shortstops by a good bit. He’s also been worth 2.5 more FanGraphs WAR than Bogaerts since that offseason, and 3.8 more fWAR than Correa. Trea Turner is the only one that has outperformed him since the Great Winter of the Shortstop™. Tying Bregman to Swanson brings me to the second thing the Cubs likely identified with Bregman: leadership and intangibles. According to Jen McCaffrey at The Athletic, last offseason, Bregman was heavily invested in the Red Sox winning, and went on to become a major leader in the clubhouse. “A year ago, Bregman grilled the Red Sox front office with a 16-page document filled with questions on the direction of the organization, the development plan for the club’s top prospects and how Boston planned to invest and spend to bring the organization back to the postseason.” McCaffrey went on to write that “Bregman took a strong interest in mentoring the club’s top prospects like [Roman] Anthony and [Marcelo] Mayer, but he also offered insight to veteran hitters going through slumps and even to pitchers, suggesting how he’d attack them as an opponent to help them better game plan.” Sound familiar? When Dansby Swanson signed with the Cubs, Jed Hoyer reported a similar concern with the direction of the club. “The thing that really stood out to me was that it felt like he was interviewing us. How are you guys gonna win? What’s your plan? What’s your philosophy? What players are you going to surround me with? Who are the prospects that are coming? It was very clear winning was the priority.” After Swanson officially left the Braves and signed with the Cubs, Jeff Schultz of The Athletic noted that “Swanson exerted a lot of influence in the clubhouse, especially with younger players like [Vaughn] Grissom and Michael Harris II.” It’s clear that the Cubs heavily value the leadership qualities that they see in Swanson and Bregman. They also, most likely, project him to age quite gracefully. Age aside, this is still a guy that posted 3.5 fWAR in only 114 games last season. He had a 125 wRC+, meaning he was a 25 percent above the league-average hitter. This is a productive player now. Whether or not you agree with the Cubs’ rationale, whether or not you agree with the importance of Bregman’s apparent leadership abilities, and whether or not you think the contract will age well, the Cubs spent money to make the team better for this season. They identified a guy that they wanted and were willing to outbid others for him. That is not something they have done particularly often under Jed Hoyer, and I think we can all commend them for that. View full article

Image courtesy of Patrick Flahive Welcome to part five of North Side Baseball’s offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find the first four parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Today, we’ll be taking a look at the life and career of Les Mann. Mann was an outfielder for the Cubs from the 1916 season until he was dealt to the Boston Braves during the 1919 season. Coming off of an epic championship game in 2023 that pitted Mike Trout against Shohei Ohtani in the ninth inning, the 2026 World Baseball Classic is starting to gather a lot of hype. The United States will be bringing arguably their best collection of talent ever in an effort to avenge their loss in that 2023 final game to Japan. And that fails to mention the stacked lineup that the Dominican Republic may field. The World Baseball Classic is sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, which was created from a merger earlier this century between the International Baseball Federation and the International Softball Federation. The International Baseball Federation was created in 1938, thanks in large part to the work of Leslie Mann. Mann was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on November 18, 1892. He attended the Y.M.C.A. College in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was there where he would begin an illustrious career in athletics. In November of 1916, The Pittsburgh Press declared Mann as “one of the best football players the training school ever had.” According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, with Mann being so close by, the Boston Braves took note of his athletic prowess and signed him to a contract that would pay him $150 per month. After a rough first couple of seasons with the Braves, Mann signed with the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, where he helped them win the 1915 pennant. After the Federal League disbanded, the outfielder found himself with the Cubs. Mann was serviceable, but not great, in his three plus seasons with the Cubs, with his best season coming in 1918. He posted a .288/.342/.384 batting line, which was 18 percent above league average, according to wRC+ at FanGraphs. His 2.3 FanGraphs WAR for that season was a major-league career high. He also put up 2.3 fWAR in the 1921 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and while he did manage a 4.3 fWAR season in 1915, that was during his lone season in the Federal League. In 1922, Mann was with the Cardinals. They found themselves in a battle for first place with the New York Giants when Mann received a letter from his old 1918 Cubs teammate, Phil Douglas. Douglas, who did not get along with his manager, John McGraw, told Mann to “send a man over here with the goods and I will leave for home on the next train.” Rather than taking Douglas up on his offer, Mann turned his former teammate in. Douglas was banned from baseball for life until he was posthumously reinstated last May. In total, Mann finished his career with 1,332 hits, however, it is his post-playing career that is truly remarkable. As reported by SABR, the Nebraska native had a passion for youth sports, and even organized a baseball school. At the Leslie Mann Coaching System, he was one of the first adopters of film to enhance baseball teaching. He invented the Mannscope, which was a patented device that could stop film on a specific frame to allow for teaching. The Mannscope, which the National Baseball Hall of Fame is currently in possession of, sounds to me like the earliest form of an edgertronic camera. As stated in the patent for the device, and as listed on the Hall of Fame’s website, the camera allows for “plenty of time to thoroughly explain each play or movement shown on the screen before passing to the next one.” Being a huge advocate for making baseball international, Mann was determined to make baseball an Olympic sport. His efforts led to an exhibition at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and Mann even convinced the International Olympic Committee to make baseball an official Olympic sport at the 1940 Games. Those Games, though, were cancelled due to World War II. The World Baseball Softball Confederation, which sanctions the aforementioned World Baseball Classic and is the governing body for baseball and softball internationally, credits Mann as the “father of international baseball” on their website, as well as with proposing and launching the original International Baseball Federation, where he was the inaugural president. A lot of baseball’s worldwide popularity now is thanks to Les Mann’s efforts back in the first half of the 1900s. View full article

Image courtesy of Baseball History Comes Alive (SABR/Don Stokes) Welcome to part four of our offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. Here are parts one through three so you can catch yourself up on everything covered to this point: Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Start of the Season Part 3: Charlie Hollocher In part four, we’ll look into how the Cubs performed in the month of June. Another Winning Streak At the start of the month, the Cubs found themselves 1.5 games behind the New York Giants in the National League standings. Fresh off of a win in their last game in the month of May, the Cubs continued on to win their first four games of June. This set up the debut of Phil Douglas on June 6. Douglas, who was one of the Cubs’ best pitchers in 1917, suffered appendicitis in February that kept him out until now. Coming off of a season in which he pitched to a 2.55 ERA, expectations were high for the veteran. Behind a complete game shutout from Douglas and home runs from Dode Paskert and Charlie Deal, the Cubs defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0. With that win, and a New York Giants loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs were officially in first place in the National League. The Cubs would win their next two games, extending their win streak to eight games, and their lead in the NL to 1.5 games. This created quite a bit of buzz around their upcoming four-game series against the Giants. According to the New York Times, the Cubs were “the sensation of the league, and the Giants face the hardest ordeal of the season in this coming series.” A Huge Series As reported by the Times, game one of the series against the Giants, with Claude Hendrix and Jeff Tesreau set to be the starting pitchers, was Bat and Ball Day, where 25 percent of the gate receipts was donated to baseball equipment for WWI soldiers in France. This fundraiser, which was created by Clark Griffith, was a huge success. Per Griffith’s Society for American Baseball Research biography, over $7,500 had been raised by July.. Unfortunately, the first shipment was struck down by a German U-boat. Griffith persisted, however, and would end up creating another campaign that successfully sent baseball supplies, as well as copies of The Sporting News so soldiers were up-to-date on happenings around baseball, to the troops. Back to the series against the Giants, the Cubs were able to take game one to extend their winning streak to nine games. Down 3-2 in the ninth inning, the Cubs took a 5-3 lead via clutch hits from Fred Merkle, Charlie Deal, and Bill Killefer. “The impulsiveness of their scrappy attack carried the Giants off their feet,” the Times said in their recap the next morning. That same article continued: “How manager Fred Mitchell has enticed this collection of ancient and youthful players to play winning ball is something of a mystery. Such familiar relics as Rollie Zelder, Dode Paskert, and Fred Merkle perform as if they had discovered some kind of a tonic which laughs at the advancing years. This young Charlie Hollocher, the former caddie boy of St. Louis, is all that they have said about him at shortstop, and is a whirlwind with his hands and feet. Charley Deal, who is no Spring chicken, manages to insert hits at the proper time, and Claude Hendrix blooms forth into a better pitching commodity than he has been for half a dozen years. The conjurer behind it all must be Mitchell, for the Cubs are the scrappiest bunch that has hit the Harlem meadow this year.” Game two pitted Lefty Tyler against Pol Perritt. With two outs in the first inning, George Burns of the Giants stepped to the plate. According to the Times, Burns hit a ball all the way to the fence that Max Flack fell while pursuing, which allowed Burns to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run: ”Just as the ball was about to flirt with the fence, Flack made a grab for it, but slipped in the mud and sat down suddenly. All this time George Burns was making tracks around the muddy base paths. Great hunks of mud were flying up from his spikes as he tore around the bases. Burns hasn’t run quite as fast as he did yesterday since he hustled to catch the train out of Utica to come to New York.” Perritt would make that stick, pitching all nine innings and allowing just six hits and two walks. The Cubs lost 1-0, and the winning streak was over. But the Cubs would bounce back the next day behind three hits each from Flack, Hollocher, and Merkle. After all of that, though, the series would end up in a 2-2 split. Hippo Vaughn gave up five runs in the first inning of game four en route to a 7-0 loss. This dropped the Cubs to 32-14 and their lead in the National League to 1.5 games. Another Win Streak to Close the Month Strong After going 3-3 in their next six games after the Giants series, the Cubs would start up another win streak. With a victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, a four-game sweep of the Cardinals, and a couple of wins against the Cincinnati Reds, the Cubs had won another seven in a row before closing the month with a loss and then a tie. In the month of June, the Cubs went 19-6-1, and went from one game back of the Giants for first place in the National League to 1.5 games up on them. The offense fell off a tad, hitting for just a .262 batting average after a sterling .295 in May. It was the pitching that really carried them. The Cubs’ team ERA in June of 1918 was just 1.95. The addition of Douglas was huge, as he had just a 0.94 ERA to that point. With Vaughn and Tyler continuing to do their part at the top of the rotation, the pitching was leading the way for the first-place Cubs. View full article

Image courtesy of Society for American Baseball Research Welcome to part three of North Side Baseball's offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. You can find part one here and part two here. Last time we checked in, in part two, the Cubs were chasing the New York Giants in the standings through the end of May, but were making up ground quickly. Even though they lost Grover Cleveland Alexander to the military, the pitching staff was rolling behind Hippo Vaughn. The offense was doing their part, thanks to sterling performances from Fred Merkle, Les Mann, Dode Paskert, and rookie shortstop Charlie Hollocher. In today’s piece, we’ll take a look at the career and life of Hollocher. [Please be warned that this piece will discuss topics like mental illness and suicide. I tried to present these events as they reportedly happened in a way to shed light on the tragic tale of Charlie Hollocher, while paying homage to the person and player that he was.] Charles Jacob Hollocher was born on June 11, 1896, in St. Louis, MO. According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, Hollocher learned the game from sportswriter John B. Sheridan. This led Hollocher to the minor leagues, where his contract was eventually purchased by the Cubs before the 1918 season. Reportedly, the Cubs were trying to deal the young shortstop for Rogers Hornsby to no avail. That would be a blessing in disguise, as he would go on to hit a team-leading .316 in the 1918 season. His 5.5 FanGraphs WAR was fourth in all of baseball. Unfortunately for Hollocher and the Cubs, that 1918 season, when he was just 22 years old, was close to his peak. His average dropped to .270 in the 1919 season. Then came the health issues. According to The Capital Times, on June 9, 1920, he was pulled from the lineup with what doctors called ptomaine poisoning, or as it is now more commonly known, food poisoning. He would go on to hit .383 in 33 games following his return to the lineup, until the same thing would happen again. Hollocher was absent from the lineup from July 14 through July 24, with the Springfield News Sun reporting on July 21 that he lost 15 pounds during another bout with ptomaine poisoning. He returned to the lineup on July 24 and 25, however, that would be the end of Hollocher’s season. Per his SABR biography, it was announced on August 15 that he was hospitalized, and then on August 17 that he was released. He finished the season with a .319 batting average, but only managed to play in 80 games and notch 369 plate appearances. Despite all of that, Hollocher would, again, rebound. He hit .315 for the Cubs across the 1921 and 1922 seasons. Unfortunately, the star shortstop fell ill again before the 1923 season, with the Chicago Tribune reporting on February 16 that he was “down with a mild attack of flu.” On March 31, the Tribune followed up that Hollocher was “confined to bed at his home here, ushering from after effects of an attack of influenza last February.” This would delay the shortstop’s 1923 season debut until May 11, where he showed no signs of being hampered, sporting the typical high batting average that fans had come to expect from Charlie Hollocher. He was hitting .342 with a .410 on-base percentage on July 23. Alas, that was the last we’d see of Hollocher in 1923. The Associated Press quoted Hollocher on August 4 as saying that he was “feeling pretty rotten and have made up my mind to go home, take a rest, and forget baseball for the rest of this year.” It was reported in the Tribune in November of that year that “stories immediately started that Hollocher’s real purpose in ‘jumping’ the team was to force a trade that would send him to the Cardinals.” It was clear that people were becoming frustrated and speculating about the star shortstop’s consistent absence. Hollocher would again rejoin the Cubs for the 1924 season after a brief contract holdout, amidst reports that he was finally fully healthy. Despite those reports, he was not his typical self. He was hitting for just a .245 batting average through August 20 before he went missing from the lineup again. The Tribune followed up with the following on September 5, while expressing doubt that he would ever play again: ”Hollocher is a sick young man, and his failure to play regularly for the last couple months was due to that and nothing else. Several weeks ago he requested that he be excused for the balance of the season, but was urged to stay until the club could get a utility shortstop.” This was, indeed, the last time anyone would see Charlie Hollocher on a professional baseball field, despite several attempts at a comeback. It is reported in his SABR biography that Hollocher returned home to St. Louis where he operated a tavern, worked as an investigator for the prosecuting attorney’s office, and also worked as a watchman at a drive-in movie theater. This all, unfortunately, led to tragedy on August 14, 1940. According to multiple reports at that time, Charlie Hollocher was found dead, in his car, with a gun wound and a 16-gauge shotgun lying beneath one of his arms. There was a note on the dashboard to call his wife. He was 44 years old. According to his SABR biography, his wife said he was recently complaining of severe abdominal pains. It is also quoted that the Chicago Herald-American wrote the following: ”The death of Charley Hollocher at his own hand came as no surprise to baseball folks who knew the one-time Cub shortstop when he was rated the top man at his position in the big leagues. Even when he was breaking in at Portland, Oregon, Hollocher was a moody, neurotic boy.” There are multiple layers to the tragedy that was Charlie Hollocher. It would seem, through multiple reports, that the young man was suffering from some sort of chronic illness in his stomach, and not everybody took that particularly seriously. We’ll never truly know what happened, but it’s easy to imagine that the illness itself, never finding a true diagnosis, and not always being taken in earnest, took a toll on him mentally. Through it all, Hollocher’s .304 career batting average is 18th all-time in the history of the Chicago Cubs among players that had at least 1,000 plate appearances. His 23.7 fWAR in just seven seasons, some of which were shortened due to the illness, is 32nd. A lot of this has been lost to history. Personally, I had never heard of Hollocher until researching this series. It’s hard not to imagine what could have been. We are all fortunate to live in a time when both physical and mental health are given much more care, though it is still not taken seriously enough. Let the story of Charlie Hollocher serve as a reminder that you never know what another human being is going through. Be kind to each other. View full article

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-Imagn Images As the Chicago Cubs firmly enter offseason mode, they’ll explore all avenues in an attempt to make the team better for 2026. One of those avenues is via trade, which can sometimes involve pieces at the minor-league level, and can sometimes involve players at the big-league level, like the recent Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo trade. In this article, we’ll take a look at the Cubs’ 10 most important players at the big league level, and consider their overall likelihood of being traded this winter. You can find part one of this series, where we looked at the back half of the Cubs’ top 10 players, here. Today, we’ll take a peek at the top five. 5 - Dansby Swanson Pros: Dansby Swanson is an incredibly productive player. Since signing with the Cubs before the 2023 season, his 12.4 FanGraphs WAR is 25th-best in baseball, ahead of names like Alex Bregman, Bryce Harper, Rafael Devers, Manny Machado, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Since 2020, the shortstop is 13th in fWAR. Cons: So much of Swanson’s value is in his defense, and he just had his worst defensive season since 2021. According to Baseball Savant, he was worth just three runs above average in the field in 2025. That is still a good number, though it is a concerning drop from being worth 12 runs above average in 2024. The bat has never been anything other than average to slightly above average. Defense, and the ability to defend at a premium position like shortstop, is his carrying tool. He’ll be 32 on Opening Day of next season, so it is fair to wonder how much longer he’ll be an above-average shortstop. Not to mention, he still has another four years and $109m left on his contract. Trade Likelihood: Low The contact is just too much for a player that has most likely hit his decline phase. If the Cubs do look to explore a deal here, it’ll most likely be to get off of the money, rather than to make the team better. Dansby Swanson, while an imperfect player, is still a good one, and he can still help them win in 2026. 4 - Nico Hoerner Pros: I could wax poetic about Nico Hoerner for more than just the one paragraph that I have here. He is 18th in baseball in fWAR since his first fully healthy season on the North Side in 2022. According to a recent article from Bruce Levine, Cubs officials view him as a leader. He moved from shortstop to second base with no complaints and has gone on to win two Gold Gloves at his new position. Cons: The Gold Glover will turn 29 next season, and while that isn’t exactly old, it is fair to wonder how much of his profile will age particularly well. He is a speed and glove-first player whose offensive profile walks a razor-thin line. He offers very little slugging and relies on a lot of groundballs and line drives to find space for singles. Trade Likelihood: Medium I, personally, would be heartbroken if the Cubs traded Hoerner, but I am also willing to concede that it might make sense. He’ll be a free agent after the 2026 season, and if the Cubs won’t give him another contract, they could look to recoup some of his value by dealing him for pitching help. 3 - Cade Horton Pros: The rookie was an absolute horse for the Cubs in the second half, pitching to a 1.03 ERA in 61 1/3 innings. His absence in the postseason was very much felt, and given that it was just his first year in the big leagues, the Cubs will have control of him for a while. Cons: His absence in the postseason, for one. The 2025 campaign was the first season of his professional career where he eclipsed 100 innings pitched. Injuries seem to be a recurring theme for the former Oklahoma Sooner. His second-half production took a unique shape, as well. Nobody has the true talent of a 1.03 ERA pitcher; his 2.79 FIP suggested some room for regression, and his strikeout rate of 23.5 percent was simply good, not great. Trade Likelihood: Low Horton, for better or worse, is the Cubs’ guy. They took a slight risk by taking him in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, and in 2025, it looked like a great decision. So much of the Cubs’ success in 2026 will depend on the young right-hander. You can pencil him into the front half of the starting rotation for next season and beyond. 2 - Michael Busch Pros: Busch took a huge step forward in the power department in 2025, going from 21 home runs in 2024 to 34 this past season. His strikeout rate went from one of the worst in the league to simply a little bit below average, and as a result of those two things, he went from a 118 wRC+ to a 140 wRC+. Cons: Michael Busch plays first base, and simply put, he’ll have to consistently post seasons with a 140 wRC+ to truly be a very valuable player. By wRC+, he was the ninth-best hitter in baseball, however, by fWAR, he was just the 45th-most valuable. At 28, he’s also old for someone entering his third full season in the big leagues. He’s still a great player, but the reason to be skeptical with Busch is the same reason why teams have been hesitant to give a big contract to Pete Alonso. Trade Likelihood: Low-to-Medium While Busch had a really good profile at the plate in 2025, if the Cubs don’t believe he is truly a 140 wRC+ type of hitter, they could look to cash in on the young first baseman now. I’d still be shocked if it happened, but for someone so obsessed with value, I can see Jed Hoyer deciding to deal Busch at a time when his value will most likely never be higher. 1 - Pete Crow-Armstrong Pros: Crow-Armstrong was in the MVP discussion after a sterling first half of the season that saw him put up a batting line of .265/.302/.544. Combine that with his defensive value and blazing speed on the basepaths, and he was one of the best players in baseball. Cons: He was one of the worst offensive players in the second half of the season, with a batting line of .216/.262/.372. He still gives value because of the defense and speed, but this is a guy that just looked completely hopeless at the plate at times. Trade Likelihood: Low The error bars on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s career are very wide. Is he the guy who carried the Cubs in the first half? Or the one that contributed to so much of their struggles in the second half? Either way, he’ll always give value because of the defense. I imagine if the Cubs did look to deal him, though, they’d find all sorts of differing opinions on what his value really is. Combine that with the fact that he is a fan favorite, and I just can’t see a trade that sends him out of town happening. The potential is way too tantalizing. View full article

Charles Jacob Hollocher was born on June 11, 1896, in St. Louis, MO. According to his Society for American Baseball Research biography, Hollocher learned the game from sportswriter John B. Sheridan. This led Hollocher to the minor leagues, where his contract was eventually purchased by the Cubs before the 1918 season. Reportedly, the Cubs were trying to deal the young shortstop for Rogers Hornsby to no avail. That would be a blessing in disguise, as he would go on to hit a team-leading .316 in the 1918 season. His 5.5 FanGraphs WAR was fourth in all of baseball. Unfortunately for Hollocher and the Cubs, that 1918 season, when he was just 22 years old, was close to his peak. His average dropped to .270 in the 1919 season. Then came the health issues. According to The Capital Times, on June 9, 1920, he was pulled from the lineup with what doctors called ptomaine poisoning, or as it is now more commonly known, food poisoning. He would go on to hit .383 in 33 games following his return to the lineup, until the same thing would happen again. Hollocher was absent from the lineup from July 14 through July 24, with the Springfield News Sun reporting on July 21 that he lost 15 pounds during another bout with ptomaine poisoning. He returned to the lineup on July 24 and 25, however, that would be the end of Hollocher’s season. Per his SABR biography, it was announced on August 15 that he was hospitalized, and then on August 17 that he was released. He finished the season with a .319 batting average, but only managed to play in 80 games and notch 369 plate appearances. Despite all of that, Hollocher would, again, rebound. He hit .315 for the Cubs across the 1921 and 1922 seasons. Unfortunately, the star shortstop fell ill again before the 1923 season, with the Chicago Tribune reporting on February 16 that he was “down with a mild attack of flu.” On March 31, the Tribune followed up that Hollocher was “confined to bed at his home here, ushering from after effects of an attack of influenza last February.” This would delay the shortstop’s 1923 season debut until May 11, where he showed no signs of being hampered, sporting the typical high batting average that fans had come to expect from Charlie Hollocher. He was hitting .342 with a .410 on-base percentage on July 23. Alas, that was the last we’d see of Hollocher in 1923. The Associated Press quoted Hollocher on August 4 as saying that he was “feeling pretty rotten and have made up my mind to go home, take a rest, and forget baseball for the rest of this year.” It was reported in the Tribune in November of that year that “stories immediately started that Hollocher’s real purpose in ‘jumping’ the team was to force a trade that would send him to the Cardinals.” It was clear that people were becoming frustrated and speculating about the star shortstop’s consistent absence. Hollocher would again rejoin the Cubs for the 1924 season after a brief contract holdout, amidst reports that he was finally fully healthy. Despite those reports, he was not his typical self. He was hitting for just a .245 batting average through August 20 before he went missing from the lineup again. The Tribune followed up with the following on September 5, while expressing doubt that he would ever play again: ”Hollocher is a sick young man, and his failure to play regularly for the last couple months was due to that and nothing else. Several weeks ago he requested that he be excused for the balance of the season, but was urged to stay until the club could get a utility shortstop.” This was, indeed, the last time anyone would see Charlie Hollocher on a professional baseball field, despite several attempts at a comeback. It is reported in his SABR biography that Hollocher returned home to St. Louis where he operated a tavern, worked as an investigator for the prosecuting attorney’s office, and also worked as a watchman at a drive-in movie theater. This all, unfortunately, led to tragedy on August 14, 1940. According to multiple reports at that time, Charlie Hollocher was found dead, in his car, with a gun wound and a 16-gauge shotgun lying beneath one of his arms. There was a note on the dashboard to call his wife. He was 44 years old. According to his SABR biography, his wife said he was recently complaining of severe abdominal pains. It is also quoted that the Chicago Herald-American wrote the following: ”The death of Charley Hollocher at his own hand came as no surprise to baseball folks who knew the one-time Cub shortstop when he was rated the top man at his position in the big leagues. Even when he was breaking in at Portland, Oregon, Hollocher was a moody, neurotic boy.” There are multiple layers to the tragedy that was Charlie Hollocher. It would seem, through multiple reports, that the young man was suffering from some sort of chronic illness in his stomach, and not everybody took that particularly seriously. We’ll never truly know what happened, but it’s easy to imagine that the illness itself, never finding a true diagnosis, and not always being taken in earnest, took a toll on him mentally. Through it all, Hollocher’s .304 career batting average is 18th all-time in the history of the Chicago Cubs among players that had at least 1,000 plate appearances. His 23.7 fWAR in just seven seasons, some of which were shortened due to the illness, is 32nd. A lot of this has been lost to history. Personally, I had never heard of Hollocher until researching this series. It’s hard not to imagine what could have been. We are all fortunate to live in a time when both physical and mental health are given much more care, though it is still not taken seriously enough. Let the story of Charlie Hollocher serve as a reminder that you never know what another human being is going through. Be kind to each other. View full player

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images As the Chicago Cubs firmly enter offseason mode, they’ll explore all avenues in an attempt to make the team better for 2026. One of those avenues is via trade, which can sometimes involve pieces at the minor-league level, and can sometimes involve players at the big-league level, like the recent Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo trade. In this article, we’ll take a look at the Cubs’ 10 most important players on the major-league roster and consider their overall likelihood of being traded this winter. 10 - Seiya Suzuki Pros: Since his arrival in MLB, Suzuki has been one of the most productive offensive players around. Believe it or not, he has a 127 wRC+ since his MLB debut in 2022, which is 32nd in all of baseball. He’s ahead of players with much bigger names like Alex Bregman, William Contreras, Corbin Carroll, Austin Riley, and Fernando Tatis Jr. Cons: The obvious difference between Suzuki and each of those players named above is that all of those other guys play premium defensive positions, or at the very least, play a less-premium position very well. In 2024, Suzuki was worth -3 runs in the field, according to Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value, and thus shifted to designated hitter full time in 2025, which also brings his value down considerably. That, plus an unproductive second half of this past season, might leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths. Trade Likelihood: Low The Cubs don’t figure to be bringing Kyle Tucker back, and will probably be investing whatever money they have in the budget into the pitching staff. They’ll need Suzuki to cover right field full time again in 2026 (or DH, if Owen Caissie's glove is better suited for the field). 9 - Matt Shaw Pros: Shaw showed some potential of being an above-average everyday player in 2025, posting a 130 wRC+ after the All-Star break, to go along with 11 home runs. His fly ball rate and pull percentage all increased significantly, and that is basically what it boils down to: When he can get out in front of the ball and get it in the air, he’ll be a productive player. He showed significant progress towards being a viable every day third baseman in the field as the season progressed as well. Cons: When it was bad, it was really bad, and that came to fruition in the playoffs as Shaw went just 2-17 with seven strikeouts. He struggled against velocity all season, posting just a .281 wOBA and .195 batting average against pitches over 95mph, per Baseball Savant, which is a pretty standard offering from most pitchers in this day and age. Trade likelihood: Low It’s been reported that teams asked for Shaw at the trade deadline, and the Cubs balked at that request, so it would seem to me that they value Shaw a bit differently than the rest of the league. Value aside, the Cubs don’t really have anyone else in house to replace Shaw should they deal him, and as mentioned earlier, I’d expect most of their resources to be funneled towards pitching. I anticipate the former Maryland Terrapin to be at third base on Opening Day in 2026. 8 - Ian Happ Pros: Happ is the longest tenured Cub, and while I am certain front offices don’t value that much, I do! He has also been as consistent as it gets, putting up a batting line between 16 and 22 percent above league average, according to wRC+, and a FanGraphs WAR between 2.8 and 3.7 in each of the past four seasons. The veteran certainly isn’t a top-level player in baseball, but he is still a guy who the Cubs should be happy to pencil into their lineup every day going forward. Not to mention, he has a relatively affordable salary of $19m in 2026. Cons: It was already mentioned: Happ isn’t an elite hitter, and he doesn’t play a particularly valuable defensive position. He just is who he is at this point. At 31 years old, you probably wouldn’t expect him to improve a whole lot going forward. Trade likelihood: Low Point blank, Happ has a no-trade clause. Which is unfortunate, because if there is a position player that makes the most sense to deal, it’s probably the veteran left fielder. The Cubs have both Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcantara looking for big-league playing time, and Happ might be a desirable target for any team looking for reliable help in left field. I won’t complain about having to keep a guy like Happ around, but were it not for the no-trade clause, it might make sense from a team-building standpoint. 7 - Matthew Boyd Pros: Boyd was hands down the Cubs’ best pitcher in 2025, putting up a 3.21 ERA, a 3.65 FIP, and 3.4 fWAR en route to his first All-Star appearance. He was a major player in getting the Cubs back to the postseason for the first time since 2020. Cons: The veteran lefty, who eclipsed 100 innings for the first time since 2019, broke down a bit towards the end of the season. His ERA jumped from 2.34 in the first half to 4.63 in the second half, including an ugly 5.31 mark in September. A rough start in Game 1 of the NLDS likely sticks in a lot of people’s minds, though he did rebound for a good start to send the Cubs to Game 5 later in that series. Trade likelihood: Medium The Cubs already have the following starting pitchers on their 40-man roster: Boyd, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, Cade Horton, Shota Imanaga, Colin Rea, Javier Assad, Ben Brown, and Jordan Wicks. Jed Hoyer has been clear he would like to add starting pitching this winter, and if he manages to add a couple of names to that group, it’s entirely possible that the Cubs could look to deal Boyd while his value is high. 6 - Justin Steele Pros: From 2022 to 2024, Steele had the 15th-best fWAR in baseball and ninth-best ERA. He was a reliable top-of-the-rotation starter for three seasons. Cons: Even at his best, Steele has never been a big-time bat-misser, certainly not the level of some of the other top starters in baseball. That alone takes some shine off. Couple that with the fact that he is coming off of another elbow surgery, and we just have no idea what we can really expect from the southpaw in 2026. Trade likelihood: Low… for now The Cubs have had success working with Steele, and I’d imagine they’d want to try to bring his value back up in 2026 before looking to deal him. If things go well for him, but poorly for the Cubs, I wouldn’t be surprised if a deal is explored at the trade deadline in July, or at the very least, next offseason. View full article

Image courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Photo Archives Welcome to part two of our offseason series covering the 1918 Chicago Cubs. In part one, we briefly recapped the 1917 season, examined the influence that World War 1 was potentially going to have on the 1918 season, and took a look at some of the big personnel changes the Cubs made. You can check that out here. Today, we’ll kick-off the season by checking in with the Cubs’ early results in both April and May. A Slow Start and a Major Loss The Cubs won their last four games of April to recover from a 2-3 start and finish the month at 6-3. Despite that hot streak, they were looking up in the standings at the 11-1 New York Giants, who scored 80 runs in those 12 games. The 6-3 start was of little concern when Grover Cleveland Alexander’s name was called in the draft. Alexander, who figured to be the team’s best starting pitcher, was set to serve in the United States Army and fight in World War I. According to the New York Times, he left to report to Camp Funston in Kansas on April 30. The star pitcher’s loss had a tremendous impact on the Cubs. He was only able to make three starts, posting a 1.73 ERA in limited duty.. However, I want to take a second to acknowledge the human impact this had on Alexander. He would not make his way back to the United States until almost exactly one year later, in April of 1919, when, according to the New York Times, he wanted to spend two weeks with his mother, and then two weeks to rest. Remarkably, Alexander was able to return to form following his reintroduction to baseball en route to his eventual Hall of Fame induction. He managed to collect 181 of his 373 career wins following his year in service, though he never managed to strike out as many guys as he did previously. This is particularly incredible when you consider this passage from the Hall of Famer’s Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography: ”Alexander spent seven weeks at the front under relentless bombardment that left him deaf in his left ear. Pulling the lanyard to fire the howitzers caused muscle damage in his right arm. He caught some shrapnel in his outer right ear, an injury thought not serious at the time, but which may have been the progenitor of cancer almost thirty years later. He was shell-shocked. Worst of all, the man who used to have a round or two with the guys and call it a day became alcoholic and epileptic, a condition possibly caused by the skulling he’d received in Galesburg. Alex tried to cover up his epilepsy using alcohol in the mistaken belief that it would alleviate the condition. Living in a world that believed epileptics to be touched by the devil, he knew it was more socially acceptable to be drunk.” Harrowing and disturbingly human, no? Some things truly are bigger than baseball. The 1918 Cubs thus had to move on without their best starting pitcher, but that impact simply pales in comparison to the impact that was felt by Grover Cleveland Alexander himself. A Win Streak and a Productive May The Cubs, who had Claude Hendrix starting games in place of Alexander, won their first five games of May, giving them a nine-game win streak, and an 11-3 record. Hendrix, however, struggled. After a two-run complete game to end April, he allowed six runs in each of his first two starts in May. He would settle down after a brief stint in the bullpen to finish the month with a 3.13 ERA. It all felt for naught. The New York Giants persisted, with the New York Times writing on May 6, 1918 that “the runaway race which the Giants are making the National League has the other clubs worried, and as each day passes it looks more and more as if there was no club East or West which would be able to stop McGraw’s juggernaut.” They enjoyed a 18-1 start to the season and a 4.5- game lead over the second-place Cubs on May 9. To make matters worse, Larry Doyle, who the Cubs had traded for Lefty Tyler that offseason, was a major factor in the Giants’ success. He posted a .426/.483/.722 batting line with two home runs through May 4. Unfortunately, he fell ill not long after, with the New York Times reporting on May 16 that he had to have surgery for an intestinal issue. Doyle wouldn’t play again until July 2. Having lost one of their most productive hitters up to that point, the Giants would lose five of six, and the Cubs had ample opportunity to cut into their deficit when they hosted the Giants for three games at Weeghman Park at the end of May. The Cubs went on to sweep that three-game set by the final scores of 7-4, 5-1, and 7-3. The team enjoyed four RBIs from new outfielder Dode Paskert in the opening contest, a complete game from Hippo Vaughn in the second game, and a four-hit game from Les Mann in the finale. This put the Cubs in a much better position to end the month of May. At 23-12, they were still 1.5 games behind the Giants, but that number seemed small compared to the 4.5-game lead it was just a few weeks earlier. Charlie Hollocher, Fred Merkle, Mann, and Paskert all had batting averages above .300. Vaughn was providing stability to a starting rotation that sorely needed it, posting a 1.34 ERA through the month of May. Led by Merkle, Mann, Paskert, and Hollocher, the offense was rolling, and despite the loss of Grover Cleveland Alexander, the pitching staff had allowed just 104 runs, which was second-lowest in baseball behind the Giants at 103. They were also due for some reinforcements. According to his SABR biography, Phil Douglas, who had pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 1917, missed the first couple of months of the season with appendicitis, but was due to return to pitching for the Cubs in June. There was plenty of reason for optimism going forward. View full article