Cubs should embrace "all encompassing suck"
Wait, maybe they already do...
The Cubs appear to be operating with the delusion that their offense last year was actually good. I get that they finished fifth in runs scored in all of baseball with 793 behind only the Yankees, Dodgers, Brewers and Blue Jays.
But the fact remains that for half the season (the second half) their offense was inconsistent and often bad. Their three worst scoring months were July, August and September, and in the playoffs they averaged two runs a game in the wild card series against the Padres, and scored a total of just seven runs in the three games they lost to the Brewers.
Their offense was great in May and June when they averaged 7.1 runs per game. But from June on they averaged just 4.4.
What was going on in May and June? Well, Petecrow Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and Kyle Tucker were hitting out of their minds.
None of them did after that, and the offense wasn't good enough.
But you can't convince the Cubs of that. They clearly plan on just running back the same lineup, minus Tucker, and expecting what, exactly?
They are allowing their regular water carriers (Bob Nightengale, Bruce Levine, etc.) to report that they are going to be aggressive in spending money to fill out their starting rotation and to rebuild their bullpen.
And they really do need to rebuild a bullpen, considering that of their seven most used relievers in 2025 only one of them (Daniel Palencia) is currently under contract for 2026. And that doesn't include Andrew Kittredge who didn't arrive until August 1, but who has already been sold back to the Orioles, from whence he came.
