#Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news, notes, and commentary, four days a week, rain or shine. The surging Cubs face the Royals in a rare spring training night game tonight.
WELCOME to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, steeped in writers’ tears, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor. No artificial intelligences were deployed, employed, entranced, or embalmed in the commission of this missive (apparently I might be training some though). Cub Tracks eagerly awaits the advent of robotic umpires and has already amended the three laws. The going is weird. Cub Tracks turned pro a long time ago.
Cub Tracks. Where the great ones run away.
Hooray for us! It’s cool to win, no matter when. Enjoy it.
There really is a buzz though. The Cubs are getting some national coverage and people speak highly of the organization. It wasn’t long ago that people were snickering behind their hands and trying to cover their eyes at the same time.
Yency Almonte is back, on a minor-league deal, more quality depth right there, eventually, anyway. The bullpen situation is still a bit fluid, and of course the second infield backup job is up in the air presently.
Are you worried about Kyle Tucker? North Side Baseball is. They make a case.
He’s started slow before (often) and worked his way out of it. In 2022, Tucker started the regular season ice-cold. It was a 5.4 bWAR year, following his breakout 2021 campaign, when he amassed 5.7 bWAR, and he duplicated the feat in 2023. He had about half of a year in 2024 and turned in 4.7 bWAR. 2020? Slow spring. 2021? You guessed it. It’s enough of a pattern that I searched for “Kyle Tucker poor spring” and got these good links on the front page.
Still, I might nuke thoughts about unlimbering the checkbook, if only for a little while. It’s the only way to be sure.
*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.
- Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs Opening Day roster projection: The team travels to Japan for the Tokyo Series in one week. “The Cubs will have extra flexibility as they set their roster for the March 18-19 series.”
- Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga will be ready for his close-up in Tokyo Series. As Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said: “He’s a showman.”
- Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball*): On the very real possibility that Caleb Kilian is just a casing into which new pitches are poured every year. “Kilian is the king of reinvention.”
- Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): What Cubs’ Ryan Pressly brings to a Chicago team that has lacked a no-doubt closer. “I love to win,” Pressly said. “We got goals here.”
- Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): The new Cubs catching tandem has been getting love. “… I’d hazard a guess that the probability of better production offensively and defensively at catcher for the Cubs this year is very high.”
- Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): ‘He has that aura’: Chicago Cubs catching prospect Moisés Ballesteros impresses in his first big-league camp. “Ballesteros, a top-100 MLB prospect, is part of his first big-league camp coming off a stellar season in which he reached Triple A at 20.”
- Jack Magruder (MLB.com*): Cubs’ Rule 5 pick Workman off to strong start this spring. “Just go up with a good plan,” Workman said.
- Cole Bradley (MLB.com*): Shaw’s maturity, drive shine as prospect strengthens bid for a starting job. “There’s a lot in front of Matt,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
- Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): PCA returns to action in a big way with Little League HR. “… Crow-Armstrong quieted any alarms going off for Cubs fans.”
- Jim Callis (MLB.com*): Here are the Cubs’ 2025 Top 30 prospects. “The Cubs’ position-player talent recalls their 2015 farm system…”
- Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Rachel Folden bonding with prospects while rising in Cubs coaching ranks. “She knows her stuff, man,” Caissie said on a recent morning. “And there’s no nonsense with her. She just calls it the way it is, and I love that about her.”
- Will Leitch (MLB.com*): 1 bold prediction for each division entering the 2025 season. Leitch presumably likes Skyline chili.
Food for thought:
Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We are 100% in favor of human sportswriting and will not wittingly publish A. I. driven articles or content. Thanks for reading!