That’s what the overwhelming majority of survey respondents said. But what postseason position will they get?
Last week, our SB Nation Reacts survey asked respondents to vote on where they thought the Cubs would finish the 2025 regular season.
Here are the results:
Ninety-eight percent of survey respondents say the Cubs are going to end their seven-year postseason drought (not counting the 2020 pandemic season division title) and make the postseason. Of those, all but five percent have them winning the NL Central.
And the majority of voters, 63 percent, say the Cubs will be the No. 2 divisional title seed (presumably behind the Dodgers) and thus will get a first-round bye, not having to play in a wild-card series.
We don’t have much data on teams that get byes, only three years’ worth. Here’s how those teams did in their first playoff series.
2022
Braves, lost division series to Phillies
Dodgers, lost division series to Padres
Yankees, won division series over Guardians
Astros, won division series over Mariners
2023
Dodgers, lost division series to Diamondbacks
Braves, lost division series to Phillies
Astros, won division series over Twins
Orioles, lost division series to Rangers
2024
Dodgers, won division series over Padres
Phillies, lost division series to Mets
Yankees, won division series over Royals
Guardians, won division series over Tigers
So that’s 12 division winners who got byes, seven of whom lost their first-round playoff series. The only two that made the World Series were last year’s Yankees and Dodgers.
What does that mean going forward? Probably not much. It’s a small sample size, of course, and as we all know, the playoffs can be pretty random. In a sport where players are used to playing every day, the five-day break can possibly be kind of jarring. On the other hand, those five days can be used to get rotations in order and rest banged-up players. As more time goes by using this system, teams are going to gather data on how to best utilize that rest period.
It would be great to have the Cubs with the second-best, or best, record in the NL and thus have home field for whatever playoff rounds they can make. As always, we await developments.
Here are the two national questions asked this past week.
Seiya Suzuki, as you know, is having a marvelous year, leading MLB in RBI with a career-high 25 home runs, perhaps on pace for 40. (NOT INCLUDING WEEKEND NUMBERS!)
His snub is likely due to Kyle Schwarber, who’s also having a big year, being the alternate DH behind Shohei Ohtani.
Good to see fans of other teams recognizing Suzuki’s talent.
I tend to agree with this result. Chris Sale turns 37 next March and currently is on the IL, with a career total of 2,528 strikeouts. He has a contract that contains a team option for next year; even if the Braves exercise that option, 2026 could be Sale’s last year.
Cole turns 35 in September and won’t pitch this year and it’s uncertain when he’ll next take the mound. He has 2,251 strikeouts, probably close to four seasons away from 3,000.
Skenes is the wild card, with 295 strikeouts at age 23. (NOT INCLUDING WEEKEND START!) He’ll probably wind up this season with around 400, perhaps a few more. He has a lot more K’s at that age than Justin Verlander did, for example (65), but is well behind where Clayton Kershaw was at age 23 — 745. It’s possible Skenes can have a Hall of Fame type career, but it’s way too soon to make any definitive pronouncements.
As always, we await developments.
This edition of the SB Nation Reacts survey is sponsored by FanDuel.