The Chicago Cubs entered the 2025 season looking to break their four-year playoff drought. This franchise, for a reasonable amount of time, still hadn’t fully recovered from losing its core that made history and won the 2016 World Series. Fortunately, those days of mediocrity are over, and it’s clear that the Cubs are firmly a National League pennant contender.
The story of this season for Chicago has been 23-year-old Pete Crow-Armstrong’s breakout year. The young center fielder is one of the faces of the league now and a legit candidate for NL MVP. Couple Crow-Armstrong’s production with the All-Star-caliber seasons Seiya Suzuki and Kyle Tucker are putting together, and the Cubs have one of the best offenses in the league.
Still, despite the optimism, a familiar foe is emerging as a grave threat to Chicago’s postseason aspirations. And this team, the Milwaukee Brewers, which is now tied with the Cubs at 59-40 in the NL Central standings, just surpassed their divisional rival in Bleacher Report’s latest power rankings.
Winners of ten straight, Milwaukee is coming off a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers and looks to win its fourth divisional title in five years. While Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter currently has the Brewers ahead of the Cubs, he pointed to the bright spot for Chicago in this race as well as what the front office needs to do ahead of the trade deadline.
“The Cubs sandwiched a pair of impressive series wins over the Yankees and Red Sox around the All-Star break, and now they are lined up for the easiest second-half schedule of any team in baseball,” Reuter notes. “They have the farm system depth, the clear need, and the upside to go all-in at the trade deadline, and that could mean adding one of the market's top starting pitchers and top bullpen arms.”
The Cubs know precisely what they need before July 31, and the front office has the mandate to be buyers at the deadline. Winning the division makes the path to the World Series a lot easier than going through the Wild Card, and Chicago needs some extra arms to accomplish that. The front office should not be timid about opening its title-winning window right now.
Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
More MLB: What is the Cubs' most likely trade deadline strategy with two weeks remaining?