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CINCINNATI — Who are the real Chicago Cubs?
We’re still asking ourselves that question nearly four months into the 2026 season.
The Cubs entered the final series before the All-Star break on pace for 91 wins, just a notch below their 92-win season in 2025. It has been a bumpy ride for sure, with a couple of prolonged stretches of dominance and an entire month in which nothing seemed to go right.
It seems as if they’re heading in the right direction as they began a series against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, but it’s hard to look at this team and say it’s in the same class as the Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers.
Yet considering the plethora of pitching injuries, a 10-game losing streak, the struggles of Alex Bregman and other obstacles along the way, should the Cubs be satisfied with where they’re at going into the break?
“We’ve got a decent record, right?” manager Craig Counsell replied Friday afternoon in the sweltering Cubs dugout at Great American Ball Park. “We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position. That doesn’t guarantee us anything going forward.
“We’re not going to come back after the break and be finished with the injuries. We’ve still got injury issues and we’ve got a way to get what I’d considered back to medium strength. We’re still at a pretty big deficit after the break.”
Counsell said Jameson Taillon could return next week on the homestand after making a rehab start Saturday, which would solidify a rotation that has been hit hard. But despite losing Cade Horton for the season and Ben Brown, Taillon and Edward Cabrera over the last month, Cubs starters were a combined 13-3 with a 3.45 ERA since June 10, third-best in the National League behind the Brewers (2.69) and Miami Marlins (3.18) and sixth overall.
***** Imanaga, who started Friday, has stepped up since becoming the de facto ace again, and Matthew Boyd had one of his strongest outings as a Cub on Tuesday in Baltimore, throwing six shutout innings.
While there have been peaks and valleys with the pitching and offense, the certainty this season has been the steady Cubs defense, which led the majors in defensive runs saved entering the weekend. Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong appear on track for Gold Glove Awards at short and center, respectively, while Nico Hoerner, Alex Bregman and Ian Happ all will be in the picture if they continue at their current pace.
‘They make it look so easy’: Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner impress as elite double-play duo for Chicago Cubs
The defense has helped the pitching keep the Cubs in games.
“Our defense is definitely a factor,” Counsell said. “You can go to the Baltimore series or the St. Louis series to see examples of runs taken off the board by our defense. They just make our pitchers better.
“From a pitching perspective, it’s been a revolving door. We’ve had a lot of new faces and people have really stepped up in that opportunity and done a good job. That’s a reason why we’re here as well.”
The offense has been the most unpredictable part of the Cubs season. After starting out with a .782 OPS while getting off to a 27-12 start, they were 29th with a .632 OPS over their next 29 games, going 7-22. But they’ve rebounded once again with an .829 OPS since June 11, sparked by Crow-Armstrong’s resurgence.
After the series in Cincinnati and a short break, the second half provides players who weren’t consistent offensively with a chance to reset. Bregman obviously will be the one everyone is looking at to improve his numbers, which he has admitted are not up to his standards.
If Bregman starts hitting like Bregman, the Cubs could take a big leap forward in the second half and peak for the postseason.
“I think Alex is going to have a strong rest of the season,” Counsell said. “I don’t know if the All-Star break is going to be the marker for it. I thought he had a pretty strong series in Baltimore, so hopefully that’s the start of it.”
Bregman was only 2-for-12 in Baltimore but had three RBIs. His .679 OPS ranks 16th out of 19 third basemen with 200 or more at-bats, while his .347 slugging percentage ranks 18th. The Cubs obviously need more production out of the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, and Counsell has not budged from his decision to leave him there behind Crow-Armstrong, whose 5.9 fWAR was second only to Shohei Ohtani.
“Pete has shown everybody a lot of different versions of himself,” Counsell said. “I think we can all agree this is the best version we’ve seen of Pete. Now at some point in the future he’s going to struggle. That’s this game. It’s to be expected. But I think he has raised the bar for what he can do, and that’s the best thing. … His at-bats are at a different level than they were at this time last year. His at-bats against left-handed pitching has changed dramatically, his strike-zone control has changed significantly.
“It’s just a better version of Pete, and that creates a much higher floor for what we’re going to see from him for the rest of the year.”
Continue reading...
We’re still asking ourselves that question nearly four months into the 2026 season.
The Cubs entered the final series before the All-Star break on pace for 91 wins, just a notch below their 92-win season in 2025. It has been a bumpy ride for sure, with a couple of prolonged stretches of dominance and an entire month in which nothing seemed to go right.
It seems as if they’re heading in the right direction as they began a series against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, but it’s hard to look at this team and say it’s in the same class as the Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers.
Yet considering the plethora of pitching injuries, a 10-game losing streak, the struggles of Alex Bregman and other obstacles along the way, should the Cubs be satisfied with where they’re at going into the break?
“We’ve got a decent record, right?” manager Craig Counsell replied Friday afternoon in the sweltering Cubs dugout at Great American Ball Park. “We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position. That doesn’t guarantee us anything going forward.
“We’re not going to come back after the break and be finished with the injuries. We’ve still got injury issues and we’ve got a way to get what I’d considered back to medium strength. We’re still at a pretty big deficit after the break.”
Counsell said Jameson Taillon could return next week on the homestand after making a rehab start Saturday, which would solidify a rotation that has been hit hard. But despite losing Cade Horton for the season and Ben Brown, Taillon and Edward Cabrera over the last month, Cubs starters were a combined 13-3 with a 3.45 ERA since June 10, third-best in the National League behind the Brewers (2.69) and Miami Marlins (3.18) and sixth overall.
***** Imanaga, who started Friday, has stepped up since becoming the de facto ace again, and Matthew Boyd had one of his strongest outings as a Cub on Tuesday in Baltimore, throwing six shutout innings.
While there have been peaks and valleys with the pitching and offense, the certainty this season has been the steady Cubs defense, which led the majors in defensive runs saved entering the weekend. Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong appear on track for Gold Glove Awards at short and center, respectively, while Nico Hoerner, Alex Bregman and Ian Happ all will be in the picture if they continue at their current pace.
‘They make it look so easy’: Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner impress as elite double-play duo for Chicago Cubs
The defense has helped the pitching keep the Cubs in games.
“Our defense is definitely a factor,” Counsell said. “You can go to the Baltimore series or the St. Louis series to see examples of runs taken off the board by our defense. They just make our pitchers better.
“From a pitching perspective, it’s been a revolving door. We’ve had a lot of new faces and people have really stepped up in that opportunity and done a good job. That’s a reason why we’re here as well.”
The offense has been the most unpredictable part of the Cubs season. After starting out with a .782 OPS while getting off to a 27-12 start, they were 29th with a .632 OPS over their next 29 games, going 7-22. But they’ve rebounded once again with an .829 OPS since June 11, sparked by Crow-Armstrong’s resurgence.
After the series in Cincinnati and a short break, the second half provides players who weren’t consistent offensively with a chance to reset. Bregman obviously will be the one everyone is looking at to improve his numbers, which he has admitted are not up to his standards.
If Bregman starts hitting like Bregman, the Cubs could take a big leap forward in the second half and peak for the postseason.
“I think Alex is going to have a strong rest of the season,” Counsell said. “I don’t know if the All-Star break is going to be the marker for it. I thought he had a pretty strong series in Baltimore, so hopefully that’s the start of it.”
Bregman was only 2-for-12 in Baltimore but had three RBIs. His .679 OPS ranks 16th out of 19 third basemen with 200 or more at-bats, while his .347 slugging percentage ranks 18th. The Cubs obviously need more production out of the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, and Counsell has not budged from his decision to leave him there behind Crow-Armstrong, whose 5.9 fWAR was second only to Shohei Ohtani.
“Pete has shown everybody a lot of different versions of himself,” Counsell said. “I think we can all agree this is the best version we’ve seen of Pete. Now at some point in the future he’s going to struggle. That’s this game. It’s to be expected. But I think he has raised the bar for what he can do, and that’s the best thing. … His at-bats are at a different level than they were at this time last year. His at-bats against left-handed pitching has changed dramatically, his strike-zone control has changed significantly.
“It’s just a better version of Pete, and that creates a much higher floor for what we’re going to see from him for the rest of the year.”
Continue reading...
