Brewers’ top rival’s offseason priority ignores biggest departure

The Chicago Cubs are a confounding franchise. A World Series contender not even a decade ago, they underwent an extensive rebuild following the 2021 season and finally emerged as a postseason entrant once again in 2025.

However, their roster construction is bizarre to say the least, with a lot of veterans under contracts that expired this offseason or are set to expire in 2026. They sort of went all-in on this past season by trading a trio of cost-controlled youngsters for Kyle Tucker, but failed to do anything to supplement their core beyond that at the trade deadline.

Of course, the Milwaukee Brewers overtook them for the NL Central crown in the second half and then beat them in a tense five-game NLDS, so you'd expect the big-market Cubs to retool and come back prepared to seek revenge next year.

And yet, their priorities appear to be all over the place, and they simply don't seem to have an actionable plan at the moment. Despite facing the loss of Tucker -- a legitimate MVP candidate when healthy -- Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic are reporting that the Cubs' intention is to focus on adding pitching this winter.

Cubs' twisted priorities will make Brewers' quest for NL Central title in 2026 even easier

Now, this isn't to say the Cubs don't need pitching. We saw in the Divisional Round how little they believed in their starting pitchers beyond Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon, both of whom have durability concerns and can become free agents in a year's time.

They're also set to lose Shota Imanaga this offseason, which means that rookie Cade Horton and recovering-from-an-elbow-surgery southpaw Justin Steele will have to step up as frontline starters next offseason to give them a chance. It's no wonder that they're trying to add pitching.

However, the loss of Tucker is far more problematic for the Cubs, whose streakiness at the plate and lack of overall contact ability in the lineup will make them prone to long slumps if they don't effectively replace their best hitter.

Given that their projected 2026 payroll sits around $150 million currently -- a big number to Brewers fans, but peanuts for the Cubs -- there shouldn't be any concerns about their ability to add significant talent this offseason. And yet, their noncommittal front office appears content to simply run it back with a lineup that averaged 2.33 runs per game in its three NLDS losses to Milwaukee.

You won't find Brewers fans complaining about it, but what a bizarre admission of defeat this appears to be.