The Chicago Cubs have played 99 games in the 2025 season and are 59-40, tied for the second best team in baseball. While the team has been solid all year, the red hot Brewers just tied our record thanks to a 10 game win streak. Can the steady Cubs outlast the Brew Crew?
Injuries
You almost never get lucky with health, usually the best you can manage is not being too unlucky. This year we have not been too unlucky. Guys are stepping up when we need them to, pretty much across the board. That said, we still had some bad losses.
Shota Imanaga
A stretch without Shota Imanaga has led to a lot of innings from rookie Cade Horton and offseason pickup Colin Rea. While Horton looks amazing for someone who has thrown so few innings in his career, Rea has been a bit hit-or-miss, looking great early on, but having more and more bad starts as the season plays on. Shota has looked like himself in 5 games back, with a 1.78 ERA and 4 wins since he returned on June 26th
Justin Steele
Losing Justin Steele was brutal, but clearly this team has made it work, mostly thanks to an ace-like performance from Matthew Boyd, who is looking like one of the best signings of the offseason. I hope Steele's rehab goes well and he helps us win the World Series for the second consecutive year in 2026
Miguel Amaya
Losing Miguel Amaya has not fazed us, as Carson Kelly and dong specialist Reese McGuire have really stepped up, though I still miss my boy Miguel every passing day. He should be back around the trade deadline, and I anticipate great things.
Standouts
You could put a lot of cubs here, but I'm just going to talk about three who have really impressed me.
Pete Crow-Armstrong: 26 HR, 28 SB, 72 RBI
Man. This guy is so fucking good. He was the fourth fastest player all-time to reach 25 HR and 25 SB. He leads the NL in (baseball-reference) WAR at 5.7 and (baseball-reference) defensive WAR at 1.9.
His approach is also fucking crazy. He swings the most in MLB. There was a period where he was swinging at almost anything. And the weird part is it works great. He crushes strikes and balls alike, and causes chaos on the basepaths. The biggest surprise this year is his quality of contact. He has so much power, and he is starting to make the most of it. He has literally hit home runs unlike any in the statcast era.
On the other side of the ball, one highlight is that he made a catch that Statcast initially said had a 0% catch probability (though i think they manually adjusted it to 5% later). He makes 5 Star plays (defined as a 0-25% catch probability) 66.7% of the time this season (12-18).
He's also 23. If PCA can keep doing this, he'll establish himself as one of the greatest 5-tool players ever. That's the kind of season this is.
Michael Busch: 20 HR, .923 OPS, 164 OPS+
Look. I always knew Busch was a solid performer and stabilizing presence on offense and defence, but I didn't expect anything like this. There's something about Buschy that makes him fly under the radar, but a few weeks ago people started to realize this guy is top 5 in OPS. He is kinda like Tucker in how consistent his approach is, and he frankly just takes great ABs. He's getting more chances to prove himself against lefties, and if he can pull that off then he'd be inarguably one of the best first basemen in baseball.
Matthew Boyd: 112 Innings, 1.03 WHIP, 2.34 ERA, 2.6 WAR
Matthew Boyd is not the Step Pitcher, he's the pitcher who stepped up, and he isn't fucking around. Boyd is coming back from an injury throwing harder than he ever has in his career, and looking like 1 piece in the rotation. Boyd is signed on a $29M contract through 2026 with a mutual option for 2027. Damn cheap for an ace, which is what he has somehow been this season!
I don't have much else to say, other than I hope this isn't a fluke, cause we could sure use that in the playoffs and the next season or two.
Trade Deadline
The Cubs know that this is the year to push. We have so many players outperforming projections. No prospect is untouchable. It's go time.
Pitching
A starting pitching is almost 100% happening. Probably a number 3 or 4 in the rotation, someone to take pressure off of Rea and Horton. Mitch Keller of the Pirates is one such guy, though I really have no idea.
Righty Bat
This team has so many good lefties, but sometimes we struggle on the other side. Great lefty starting pitching has been a real weakness this season. I think there's a decent chance of righty support at third base. One possibility would be Cubs Killer Eugenio Suarez of the DBacks in his walk year. Though he would be expensive, I think it would be worth it. Shaw is great, and his defense is very valuable, but he is a rookie and risky to rely on in a World Series Run.
Takeaways
You look at this lineup and there's so many dudes having career years. Seiya Suzuki is putting together an excellent season, Tucker is exactly as advertised, and Hoerner is rock solid.
The bullpen has been so much of a surprise that I'm scared to even talk about it. All I'm gonna say is Palencia is fun as hell to watch, and I dream of him closing out the World Series for us.
This could totally be a World Series team.
Go Cubs