For the second consecutive year, the Chicago Cubs earned one of the National League wild-card spots and for the second straight year, they were unable to parlay the spot into a deep postseason run. Last year, they defeated the Padres in the Wild Card Series in three games before being eliminated by the Brewers in the NLDS. This time around, they were swept in two games by the Padres in the first round.
In some ways, the Cubs had an incredibly fun season. There were two separate 10-game winning streaks from mid-April through early May, pushing the Cubs to an MLB-best 27-12 record. They later went on a 35-16 run from June 11 to Aug. 12 and looked, again, like a World Series contender.
They had the best defense in baseball while also scoring the most runs and leading the majors in OPS and position-player WAR. Pete Crow-Armstrong went 40-40 and is likely going to win NL MVP with one of the greatest Cubs seasons ever -- and one of the best for any team this century. In other ways, this was an incredibly frustrating bunch.
While topping the majors in several position-player stats, the Cubs had the worst pitcher WAR in baseball. Yes, even worse than teams like the Rockies and A's. There were plenty of injuries, but also a ton of underperformance that just shouldn't be acceptable for a team with the aspirations of the Cubs.
Those two 10-game winning streaks? They were followed by 14 losses in the next 16 games, a stretch that included a 10-game losing streak. The pitching really started to melt down in mid-August, in part causing the Cubs to finish 17-22 after Aug. 12.
The tumble meant losing home field advantage for the WCS and having to travel to San Diego. Perhaps summing it all up, the Cubs led the majors with 13 walk-off wins in 2026, but also blew 34 leads among their losses and took seven walk-off losses. As they look toward next year, here are three questions facing the ballclub.
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