Ten games separated the Chicago Cubs from first place in the National League Central in 2024. Six games separated them from the NL's final Wild Card berth. Those gaps are small enough that a strong offseason could put the Cubs in position to return to baseball's postseason for the first time since 2020.
More news : First Team to Meet With Juan Soto Won't be Yankees or Mets: Report Coming off an 83-win season, there are a few obvious holes in the Cubs' roster. Their need for starting pitching help only grew when veteran Kyle Hendricks — the last member of the 2016 World Series champion team still in Chicago — signed with the Los Angeles Angels last week. Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins confirmed starting pitching is on his offseason shopping list confirmed the obvious in an interview with ESPN's Buster Olney .
So is catching help — a position at which the Cubs accrued minus-0.2 Wins Above Replacement in 2024, according to FanGraphs . "We really like Miguel Amaya at catcher but we feel that's an opportunity for us to get better, whether that's pairing a player with Miguel or finding somebody to take everyday at-bats there," Hawkins said.
"You can really never have enough great arms. That's the probably the space that we'll focus on the most. If we can find an opportunity to improve over any of our other players, we'll do it, it's just the better the player it is, the harder it is to improve over that player.
" The list of veteran catchers available in free agency is sh.
