For the second consecutive year, the Chicago Cubs earned a wildcard spot out of the National League and for the second straight year, they failed to make a run for the postseason. Last year, the Padres won the Wild Card Series in three games before being eliminated by the Brewers in the NLDS. This time around, the Padres were swept in two games in the first round.
Somewhere the puppies had an incredibly fun time. The winning streaks from mid-April through early May were two separate 10-game streaks, propelling the Cubs to an MLB-best 27-12 record. Then they went on a 35-16 run from June 11 to Aug. 12. and they once again looked like a World Series contender. They had the best defense in baseball while also scoring the most runs and hitting the majors in OPS and WAR. Pete Crow-Armstrong went 40-40 and is likely to win the NL MVP with one of the Cubs’ greatest seasons ever — and one of the best of any team this century.
In other ways, this file is incredibly frustrating. While the majors put up a lot of pitching players, Cubs pitchers have had the worst war in baseball. Even worse are teams like the Rockies and the A’s. There were plenty of injuries, but also a ton of underperformance that just doesn’t fit the team with the aspirations of the Cubs. Those two 10-game hitting streaks? Fourteen losses in the last 16 games followed, which included a 10-game losing streak. If you really started to blow in the middle of the middle of August, partly the cubs to finish 17-22 after Aug. 12. The Tumble meant losing home field advantage to the WCS and going to San Diego.
Perhaps it’s all complex, the Cubs majored in 2026 with 13 walks, but also led the 34th in strikeouts and took seven walks.
Looking ahead to next year, here are three issues facing the ballclub.
1. How will the cornerback hit the outfield spots?
Right fielder Seiya Suzuki and left fielder Ian Happ are both set to hit free agency, leaving massive holes on the line.
Happ is 32. His worst season comes in 2021 after a string of four years between 3.5 and 4.3 (he recorded 2.9 this year). His offense collapsed and he was guilty, as a hammerman, of his work as a right-hand striker. He was still productive as a lefty, but from the right side, hitting .145/.217/.267 with 52 strikeouts in 131 at-bats.
Suzuki, 32, has long been a productive, albeit inconsistent, hitter and has improved his defense this season to get him to a career-best 5.1 WAR. In his last four seasons at the plate, he’s hit .270/.353/.480 (131 OPS+) and this season, his slash line has been .270/.368/.473 (131 OPS+), as you can see in the season-to-season consistency. He just gets to a similar point with a series of hot and cold streaks in each season.
It’s likely that the Cubs will only run and retain both, but it’s possible to re-sign one while allowing the other to step up. Suzuki is clearly the better player, but that also means the Cubs will have to deal with tougher competition to keep their jobs.
If the Cubs lose both, in-house options could be Pedro Ramirez (a rookie utility man who has shown good promise) and Matt Shaw, who has gone from everyday utility to utility this season. Of course, if both players occupy the everyday corner outfields, this really thins out the depth of the infield. Bringing Michael Conforto back to the lineup in the corner outfield spot could help things. Maybe Taylor will try to bring Tyrone back, too.
Otherwise, the Cubs are looking to give Kevin Alcantara an extended look or fishing outside of the organization.
He said the wise move here would be to bring back Suzuki, plant Shaw in left field and use Ramirez as a backup utility. Comfort and/or Taylor would be good. Happy trails for Happ, unless his market is at the very bottom to where it takes a lot of cheap one year to restore value.
2. Can they be fixed?
As noted, the Cubs’ position player group was amazing in 2026. The pass rush numbers weren’t as different as the run defense, thanks to a defense that covered up a lot of the pass issues. Not all, though. There were plenty of bad guys on the staff.
Yes, they were wrong. Promising youngster Cade Horton has only lost time after two starts. Ben Brown emerged a beast of a breakout and couldn’t pitch after June 19. Matthew Boyd stayed on IL. Justin Steele is now almost two seasons away from his early 2025 Tommy John surgery.
They were also sent. Eduardo Cabrera was a successful failure. Jameson Taillon should have been assigned. Boyd and Shota Imanaga were at odds, even though they were mostly good. The bullpen had a bunch of injuries and underperformance at the same time.
The Cubs don’t seem to have a pitching system in place, organically, to be able to pull off many of their own wins, which means trading for deals every offseason.
This seems like the one role he’s making up front, taking risks on flyers (Cabrera, Phil Maton, Jacob Webb, Ryan Zeferjahn) or injury-prone pitchers (Hunter Harvey), hoping to hit the lottery. Sometimes it works. Baked with the possible reward in high-risk-high-reward moves is the downside of injury concerns or major players (Hoby Milner) on the cheap.
So, sure, it’s built on the excuse of a front office with tons of injuries up and down the staff. Some from that field, though they had access. This meant the upheaval in the middle of the season caught David Peterson and both Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes before the trade was announced. It’s not a model most organizations want to follow.
How are they shaping up to next year?
Gausman, Imanaga and Peterson are free agents. Boyd has a $15 million loan option, which he can probably beat on the open market. The same goes for Holmes and his choice of 12 million players. This is a very realistic mission the whole It has become more serious since late in the season. Fill-in starter Colin Rea is also a free agent, as is long reliever Aaron Civale.
This means the rotation heading into the offseason probably has Cabrera, Steele and Javier Assad, with the hope of Horton returning midseason and relying on Brown’s neck injury to heal properly.
The bullpen will need a lot of work, even if Daniel Palentia is fixed and Zeferjahn pitches next year. There’s a $2.5 million club option for Webb, which the Cubs could pick up in hopes that his midseason streak could be completed this year as the all-time high hits 2027.
It sure looks like the Cubs have a lot to accomplish this offseason.
Something worth noting: Carson Kelly’s face seems to work really well with the shooting stick and also hit the free agent.
3. Is this really enough?
This is the looming question of puppy ownership. The post-2021 rebuild is complete and the Cubs go from 83 wins in 2024 to 92 wins and a loss in the 2025 NLDS, then again in 2026 with 89 wins and a loss in the Wild Card Series.
This was Jed Hoyer’s sixth full year in charge of baseball operations and the Cubs neither won the division nor advanced to the NLCS. When Hoyer was in charge of Theo-Epstein, the Cubs continued to rebuild more thoroughly and were still in the NLCS in the fourth year of that administration before winning 103 games and the World Series in the fifth year. In six years, they had two division titles and three straight NLC trips with that ring.
The Cubs have now been defeated by the Brewers. The Brewers finished five games in 2025 and lost them in the NLDS, and this year they finished the playoffs after them. The Brewers won the season series nine games to four, including five of six in September.
Player development left a lot to be desired. It appears that there have been some wins, but not enough to form the backbone of the ballclub’s future, unless it dips heavily into free agency or trade.
It is clear that this is “enough” for the Ricketts family because there are no signs of significant changes in the front office at this time.
Is that enough, though? Playing second fiddle to the brewery while winning 90 or so games and laughing in the early rounds of the NCAA?
It is certain that it should not be liked. I’m not suggesting that Hoyer or General Manager Carter Hawkins are definitely fired, but I’m not sure whether a move is off the table. I am not saying that it is necessary to spend more before the job.
What I am saying is that the state of the seat is returning to the brewery and this cannot be enough. It needs something better.