Mitch Widmeier

December's trade ignited a Cubs fanbase that has been starving for relevance. At the time, it was thought to be the first big move in what could've been a big offseason for Jed Hoyer and the rest of the Cubs braintrust. So far, though, the big move after that big move hasn't materialized. Image courtesy of © Troy Taormina-Imagn Images After landing Kyle Tucker, Chicago was "in" on names like Alex Bregman, Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott. It ended up with none of them, though, and had to shop on the discount rack instead. That's not a knock on some of the signings, like veteran infielder Justin Turner. Turner agreed to a deal with the Cubs on Tuesday. The 40-year-old can still get it done at the dish, slashing .259/.354/.383 in 2024 at age 39. The problem is that the signing comes after a weeks-long pursuit of Bregman. At one point, it seemed the Cubs were destined to land the former Houston third baseman. Instead, he signed with the Boston Red Sox, and the vibe of coverage in the wake of that news has been bad—especially from national writers. In the week since Bregman got his money, numerous reports have surfaced that the Cubs weren't seriously in contention. Take Buster Olney of ESPN, who dedicated an entire article to slamming the Cubs for clinging to their own pocketbook. That's a radical oversimplification, and a bit of a mischaracterization. That Bregman passed on (a whole lot) more guaranteed money from Detroit tells us two things: He didn't really want to play in Detroit, anyway; and More guaranteed money wasn't going to tip the scales. So, that critique is built on a foundation of sand. The Houston offer was a stalking horse, really. It was rescinded weeks before Bregman signed, and that was because he left it on the table for weeks in his own right. Only Boston offered a higher annual average value than the Cubs', and while creative deferrals gave them the ability to grab headlines with a high topline number, the real value of their deal was not wildly above the one the Cubs were offering. Still, the national media has the privilege of setting the tone of national baseball discussions, and right now, those discussions are going against the Cubs. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Fox has been a constant critic of owner Tom Ricketts and how he's steered the franchise. Saying Rosenthal has been a critic, in fact, is a nice way of putting it. It's hard to argue any of those points, and together, they make a mockery of Ricketts's "just break even" comments at Cubs Convention. Point, Rosenthal. With the trade for Tucker, the Cubs put on the facade of a team investing big in the now. Give them credit for making that move, but the real defining moment will come next winter. They'll have a chance to put their money where their mouth is next offseason by re-signing Tucker, one of the premier outfielders in MLB, to a fair deal. If the Cubs bring a broom to the batter's box hoping to hit a home run in contract negotiations with Tucker and his representation, they'll surely strike out in their efforts to convince the fanbase they were "in" the running. Some are praising the Cubs for at least pivoting elsewhere, after losing out on Bregman, and landing Turner. Has it really gotten to that point with this franchise? Turner provides a solid bat and veteran leadership. Bregman provides that, a Gold Glove at third, more power and 10 extra years of youth. That's why one cost more than five times what the other did, of course, but it takes a lot of mustering to generate optimism based on Turner after having had a shot at Bregman. There's reason for optimism this year; don't mix it up. The National League Central is wide open and the Cubs made the biggest move in the division. They will enter the season as clear favorites to win the division crown. Winning the division and getting back to the postseason for the first (real) time since 2017 would be a feather in the cap for the front office. It wouldn't, however, be enough to truly turn around the narrative building within this fan base. Nobody is expecting the Cubs to compete financially with the likes of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. Coming up short on bigger names time and again, though, is a whole other problem. Cubs fans are rightfully excited to see Tucker patrolling the outfield at Wrigley Field. That one move saved the Cubs from what has otherwise been an underwhelming offseason. Now, the season needs to save them from frustration over Tucker. View full article

As the Chicago Cubs get set for spring training, many pieces of the puzzle are already in place. February and March will answer big questions, though, about how some of them fit together. Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images One of the key questions about this team revolves around the fifth spot in the starting rotation. Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd figure to have the top four spots locked in, perhaps in that order. The final spot is a lot more fluid, and one intriguing option is Ben Brown. The lanky righthander might just be the Swiss Army knife for Chicago. Now fully recovered after his 2024 campaign was cut short due to a neck strain in June, Brown is a major X-factor for this Cubs roster—maybe the biggest one in the organization, for 2025. He appeared in 15 games last season for the Cubs, eight as a starter. In 55 1/3 innings, the hard-throwing righty racked up 66 strikeouts. If that stretch of the season had been even a hair less aggressively soul-sucking, his seven innings of no-hit ball against Milwaukee in a late May start (wtih 10 strikeouts, to boot!) would be a landmark moment of the last several years for the Cubs. Brown has a fastball that lives around 97 MPH, and a wipe-you-out breaking ball to go with it. His stuff has the potential to make a front office drool, if he works out to be a starting pitcher. The fact that he heavily relies on a two-pitch mix at the moment has some believing a role in the bullpen would be the best fit. Regardless of the path taken by the Cubs and Brown, there's no doubting the talent and the upside. Javier Assad and Colin Rea each have a leg up on Brown for the fifth spot in the rotation, for the simple reason that each has spent big parts of past big-league seasons in that role. They're more durable, and they each have the very depth of repertoire that is missing with Brown, begetting the biggest performance-related questions about his future. If he shoves during Cactus League play, though, Brown should get a chance to unseat his more veteran teammates. At 34 years of age and with a whole drawer full of team-issued workout shirts in various colors, Rea has a solid floor, but not a high ceiling. If the Cubs want to take a conservative, cautious approach to the last spot in the rotation, Rea could fit like a glove. He was asked to do a bit more with Milwaukee in 2024, due to a long list of injuries elsewhere in the rotation. Once the rotation got somewhat stabilized, however, Rea's opportunities diminished to the point where he was left off Milwaukee's playoff roster for its matchup with New York. Rea's unsexy mixture of stuff and approach don't leave much room to dream on him, but the steadiness of his five-inning, two-run starts is astonishing. Seriously, since the start of last season, he has 16 starts in which he got 15, 16, or 17 outs and allowed 0, 1, 2, or 3 runs. He will keep you in the game and get you to the bullpen in decent shape. That's more than pitchers like Brown can say, sometimes. Assad is a bit less reliable than Rea, but he, too, has the kitchen sink at his disposal. Unlike Rea, he weathers the times through the order penalty well. The crafty righty is dealing with an oblique strain which, thankfully, doesn't appear to be serious. He was a horse for the Cubs in 2024, chewing up 147 innings across 29 starts, but he did miss a bit of time with a balky elbow. He's probably a better health bet than Brown, but a worse one than Brown, and probably offers a higher ceiling than Rea, but he certainly has a lower one than Brown's. Brown's stuff is far superior to both Assad's and Rea's. If he's able to develop a changeup and establish it as a true third pitch, he can be not just a starter, but a mid-rotation one who occasionally looks like an ace for a month at a time. The risk is greater going with Brown over Assad or Rea at this point, given the lack of experience and coming off the neck strain in 2024. The reward, however, is the potential for Brown to hit the ground running and flourish in the rotation, on a level that Assad and Rea just can't match. So what does Brown think about the starter or bullpen arm debate? When asked if he still sees himself as a starter long-term, the answer was simpler, and less smothered in cliché. Brown stated to reporters. For now, he'll probably either be a starter with "Iowa" faux-scrawled across the Cubs logo on his cap, or a reliever in the majors. Rea and Assad have too many skins on the wall to shove them aside, so only an injury or an in-season failure by someone can open the door for Brown to start games for the parent club. Those happen all the time, though, and having a fallback plan as good and versatile as Brown could be a game-changed for the 2025 Cubs. View full article

With Spring Training right around the corner the Cubs have plenty to look forward to but also, plenty of questions yet to be answered. Who will get the nod for the last spot in the starting rotation and who are the candidates? How will the new faces on the squad impact things from the jump? Will Matt Shaw match the expectations? View full video