Chicago Cubs Poised To Jump Into Contention After Great Offseason

Will the Chicago Cubs become contenders after a great offseason?

Sep 24, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker (30) hits a home run against the Seattle Mariners in the fourth inning at Minute Maid Park. | Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

With spring training underway for the Chicago Cubs, a season filled with high expectations is right around the corner.

For the past couple of years, the Cubs have been a solid team in the National League. With a nice young core of talent, Chicago has been competitive but has come up just short of reaching the postseason.

This winter, the team focused on making improvements.

While their payroll dropped compared to 2024, but they utilized the trade market very efficiently to add Kyle Tucker, Ryan Pressly and Eli Morgan in key areas that needed to be upgraded.

Even though 2025 is looking like it has the potential to be a special year, the long-term outlook is very questionable with both Tucker and Pressly being in the final seaons of their contracts.

With this campaign shaping up to be 'win-now" for the Cubs, they are poised to be better than they have been of late.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic (subscription required) recently spoke about the Cubs being a team that is poised to make a leap this year.

"The NL Central will have a lot of parity once again and although I think the Cubs, Reds or Brewers could win the division, at least on paper, the Cubs have as good a chance as any of them to take home the division title," he wrote.

Being mentioned as a team being poised to bounce back is a bit surprising since this was a team that won 83 games last season. However, after just missing the playoffs with the same number of wins in 2023, they were never really in contention for a playoff berth last year.

Now, the lineup with Tucker leading it should be much improved.

While the slugger was the most notable addition, they also have a lot of young players who will be hoping to take a significant step forward in their production.

For the pitching staff, the starting rotation was a strength of the team last year and should be once again in 2025. While they might look to pursue another front-end caliber start before the trade deadline, they should have a good amount of confidence in the unit overall.

In the bullpen, the team will be in a much better position.

Chicago had one of the worst units in the league during the early stages of the year, but that shouldn't be the case this season.

Even though bouncing back from an 83-win performance might be a stretch, the Cubs are poised to be the team to beat in the National League Central coming into 2025.