I'm not going to answer that, mostly because it perpetuates the false assertion that the Cubs needed to add 30 wins. Okay, make it whatever number you think it should be then. At least then the disagreement would be over something more tangible. EDIT: And implicitly, you kinda make the point here. If that is the number, or even close to it, there isn't really a precedent because it's a gap too big to overcome with one offseason. OK. Actual inherited players contributed 18 wins last year, excluding a couple of guys who were only called up after the trade deadline to fill space. Players they inherited but traded elsewhere before the season started produced another 5 fWAR around the league. So they inherited 23 WAR last year. According to Fangraphs, the league accumulated 1,130 WAR last season, or 38 per team. So the Cubs front office needed to find 15 WAR last season to be a .500 team and within variance range of a playoff spot. They needed 24 to project to 90 wins.