Offseason Acquistion Key for Cubs To Turn Things Around This Season

Is one offseason acquisition by the Chicago Cubs key to turn things around?

Mar 31, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker (30) hits a single during the fifth inning against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

After a challenging start to the season with some tough travel, the Chicago Cubs are starting to showcase the type of team that they can be. 

It wasn’t an easy beginning to the season for the Cubs. The team had to travel to Japan for a two-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are the defending World Series champions. 

Furthermore, with the series overseas being earlier than the start of the regular season, that also threw a bit of a wrench in the spring training plans. 

However, after losing the first two games in Japan, Chicago has been red-hot. 

This is a team that came into the 2025 campaign with a lot of expectations after a great offseason. Even though the Cubs didn’t spend a ton of money, the franchise was able to improve quite a bit on the trade market. 

Due to the franchise acquiring some elite talent this winter, they instantly became the favorites in the NL Central. However, they have much higher aspirations than that. 

With some strong play of late, there are some positive takeaways for the franchise to go along with it. 

Jordan Bastian of MLB.com recently spoke about the biggest takeaway from the first week of the season for the Cubs being the addition of Kyle Tucker. 

“Through his first eight games with the Cubs, Tucker was hitting .353 with four homers, five doubles, 11 RBIs, 12 runs and as many walks (six) as strikeouts (six). It is the kind of offensive threat the Cubs need in their quest to reach the playoffs.”

The talented outfielder for Chicago has lived up to the hype so far in 2025. He has slashed .308/.449/.744 with four home runs and 11 RBI through just 10 games. 

This type of production should come as too much of a surprise considering he talent that Tucker has. 

Last year, even though an injury kept him out for about half of the season, he slashed .289/.408/.585 with 23 home runs and 49 RBI. 

At just 28 years old, the slugger arguably could just be hitting his prime and those numbers from a half of season in 2024 could be a sign of things to come. 

For Chicago, this is a franchise that has been in need of a superstar for several years. So far, Tucker is proving to be that for the team with a hot start to the year. 

However, with a looming expiring contract at the end of the campaign, the team must be mindful about the future. The let-handed slugger easily could be a one-and-done player for the Cubs, which would sting

The better Tucker does this year, the higher the price tag will be for Chicago this coming offseason.