Latest news and updates about the Cubs
The news keeps checking in on the checking in and so we continue to await with bated breath while the machinery spins. The Giants no longer need a second baseman and so the Red Sox are the only destination to hang speculation on. Smart money says Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw stay put but there’s […]
It’s a new week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. Come on in out of the cold. We’ll waive the cover charge for you. Let us take your coat. The hostess can take you […]
Over the weekend, the infield market started churning , with free agents Luis Arraez (San Francisco) and Eugenio Suarez (Cincinnati) signing fresh deals with new teams. And that movement continued on Monday with long-rumored Cardinals trade chip Brendan Donovan getting dealt to Seattle in a three-team deal (pending physical). This transaction has some already-realized, near-term impact on the Cubs, seeing as the Cardinals’ sell-off is now even more substantial (they REALLY went for it, de...
The Chicago Cubs will play a kinda-sorta-almost baseball game this month. Several of them, actually! The first is February 20 at Sloan Park, as the Cubs kick off the Cactus League slate against the White Sox. The official first workout date for the club is still nine days away, but you know these guys are training just about year-round, and there’s no better place to do it than at the Cubs’ facilities in Mesa, Arizona. So you see lots of guys showing up pretty much from the flip of the ca...
MESA, Arizona — I decided to head over to Sloan Park Monday, as I heard the equipment truck that left Chicago Friday was going to arrive. You can see the truck at the top of this post; here are some more photos of Cubs staffers unloading equipment: While I was there I headed over toward […]
Shortly after the NLDS came to an end in October, I made sure to throw some flowers in the general direction of Nico Hoerner, who had just wrapped up a career year with the Cubs : “Depending on whether you prefer FanGraphs (4.8 fWAR) or Baseball Reference (6.1 bWAR), Nico Hoerner was either the best or second-best player on the 92-win Chicago Cubs by the crude measure of individual player WAR. But given his performance in the second half of the season (122 wRC+, 2.4 WAR) and in the playoffs (1...
Seventh in the series. Today we look at the Cubs’ veteran second baseman. 28-year-old Nico Hoerner, two-time Gold Glover, potential .300 hitter, team leader, is entering the last year of his contract. Odds favor his retention but probably not by much — there are a lot of wheels spinning. Many fans would prefer that Dansby Swanson, subject […]
Although the lack of outfield depth at Triple-A Iowa has gotten the bulk of focus around here – and from the Cubs, who’ve added Justin Dean , Dylan Carlson , and Chas McCormick in the last few weeks – the Cubs were in a spot where they could use a little more depth at Double-A, as well. Consider that, although the Cubs have some very high-upside outfield prospects who’ll hopefully rise as high as Double-A later this year, the group currently at the level might lose Brett Bateman to Triple...
It’s prospects week here at Bleed Cubbie Blue as today I’m starting the countdown of my top 25 Cubs prospects for 2026. Each day we’re going to look at five new prospects until we get down to the top five on Friday. The Cubs farm system is definitely down at the moment. It’s not the […]
For personal reasons, I have stopped being the regular every-day person on Cubs coverage on the weekends. Among other things, our youngest kiddo’s extra needs have continued to grow over the years, and it had become increasingly difficult to be as present in both places as I felt I needed to be. So, for the weekend, the family wins out. That said, it’s not as if I stop being a Cubs fan on the weekends, or stop obsessively following the news and rumors when I sneak peeks at my phone. I’ll ...
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. Happy birthday Ronny Cedeno*, the Cubs go back to flannel, and other stories. Today in […]
1950 In just the fourth transaction ever between the two Crosstown teams, the White Sox bought Herman Reich from the Cubs. Reich was coming off of what on paper looked like a very solid season for the ivy bumblers, slashing .280/.305/.360 over 108 games. However, in an offensively-charged 1949 season, those numbers were actually subpar. […]
Credit where it’s due, I found the video below at this MLB.com article. This is nine minutes’ worth of various highlights from Ernie Banks’ career [VIDEO]. Your browser does not support the video tag. For this sleuthing exercise, we are concerned only with the first 14 seconds of the video. which shows Ernie hitting a […]
Eli Morgan is a Royal. Or an Omaha Storm Chaser, on a minor-league deal, according to sources. David Robertson has retired. *means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments. Food For Thought: Please […]
The San Francisco Giants made no secret about their desire to acquire a second baseman this offseason. They were never really in on free agent Bo Bichette, it seemed. There was a little smoke with Nico Hoerner, but it never seemed likely that the Chicago Cubs would deal him. They surprisingly made a run at […]
The Nets won the ABA’s final game. Then they were forced to sell the best player in the world just to survive. Yeah, that qualifies as a justification for a curse. The Nets and Nuggets were the last two teams to play an ABA game: May 13, 1976. It’s the 50-year anniversary for the final […]
You might not think this photo has enough evidence or clues to figure out the date and situation. After all the sleuthing photos I’ve posted here, though… you should not doubt me. This photo is another from BCB reader Joe Coney. What do we know about this photo at first glance? Pete Rose is playing […]
Patrick Wisdom had an interesting four years (plus two at-bats in the 2020 pandemic season) as a Cub. He hit 28 home runs in just 106 games and 338 at-bats in 2021, setting a franchise rookie record. In a nine-game stretch not long after being called up from Triple-A Iowa, he hit .379/.438/1.138 (11-for-29) with […]
A couple of weeks ago, I posted this article noting that former Cub Anthony Rizzo was being considered by NBC as an analyst as the network returns to national baseball broadcasts in 2026. Now, per Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Rizzo is, in fact, going to join the network: The outgoing Rizzo has been […]
The acquisition target made sense on paper. Eli Morgan was a guy who’d had lots of success as a big league reliever. The Cubs had some big needs in that area. He was cheap. He still had an option year left. And he was coming off a year with an injury that may well have kept the acquisition price down. I didn’t love what that acquisition price ultimately wound up being – outfield prospect Alfonsin Rosario, who was looking like a breakout player with more to come – but I understood the trad...
The kids wound up getting the entire week off of school because of the massive dump of snow combined with the sub-zero temps. A little bonus winter break for them. We have reached the part of the offseason where the edge-of-40-man-roster moves have started happening. I’m talking about trades, specifically, and the same kinds of ones we see at the a rostering deadline in the fall. Things are getting crowded on the 40-man, teams are contemplating who has options left and who doesn’t, waiv...
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. Happy birthday to Brailyn Marquez*, Grover Cleveland Alexander threatens to retire, and other stories. Today […]
The Royals announced they have signed 29-year-old right-hander Eli Morgan to a minor league deal. Morgan was excellent in 2024, posting a 1.93 ERA in 32 games with Cleveland in 2024, but appeared in just seven games with the Cubs due to an elbow injury. Morgan was originally an eighth-round pick by Cleveland out of […]
Episode 47 of the Bleacher Nation Cubs Podcast is officially live! In this week’s episode, Brett and I go through the entire crop of Cubs starting pitchers, from Cade Horton to the depth arms, to really dive into the potential risks and rewards in 2026 specifically. And, more specifically, we do that all while wondering if there’s actually room for another free agent like Zac Gallen. Spoiler alert: I think there is. Some time stamps for your convenience: 05:55 – Cade Horton...
It’s been enough of a theme around here this offseason that, by the time farm system rankings were due to start rolling out, I would hope most of you already know that the Chicago Cubs are not going to fare especially well. There’s a lot of young talent on the big league roster, and the Cubs have used prospects well in trade, but the natural thinning that has accompanied the trades and promotions tended toward a reduction in overall talent down on the farm. Combine that with relatively po...