As Nathaniel Hawthorne famously said: “time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” It was just three years ago that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series and in doing so provided one of the most iconic moments in sports history.
Now their championship window is in danger of closing shut, and that closure could be here before you know it, unless they have a a lot of major victories this offseason. The Cubs are coming off a year in which they didn’t even make the postseason, and that’s on the heels of a season in which they couldn’t do any better than the one-off Wild Card play-in.
The run of three straight NLCS appearances was impressive, but it will be ancient history before you know it. With the Washington Nationals heading to the World Series to take on the winner of the Houston Astros/New York Yankees, it’s time to look at the 2020 MLB playoff predictions and odds. And the Cubs are backed at a level that you might find pleasantly surprising.
Only eight teams (Astros, Dodgers, Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, Nationals, Indians and Cardinals) have better odds of winning the World Series next year according to Westgate. Only four in the National League are priced more favorably than the North-Siders. Odds on the Chicago Cubs winning it all again, which would be just their fourth title in franchise history are being laid at 20/1.
That’s on par with the Phillies, Mets, Rays, Brewers and Twins- pretty good company. Of course, they won’t get there unless they fix a lot of major problems this winter. In 2019, their bullpen was atrocious while the starting pitching has apparently peaked now and seems to be heading downhill fast.
Meanwhile the offense was often all-or-nothing, and alarmingly comprised of solo homers. They still have a great young nucleus of position players and some big bats, so the base is still there to build around. If they can keep most of the core together a little while longer, and then find some pitching and role players to complement it, the chance and capturing another flag still persists.
However, they’ll have to take stock of everything now and start a some big time revamping in December. It all starts in figuring out who the new manager will be. Quoting Hawthorne again: “Families are always rising and falling in America.” The same can be said for Major League Baseball clubs.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.