Chicago Cubs can’t look past Pittsburgh Pirates – or they could pay a price

Contrary to popular belief, the Pittsburgh Pirates still have enough to be a pain to the Chicago Cubs – even after losing two franchise players in big-time trades.

Since going head-to-head in the 2015 National League Wild Card game, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs trended in different directions. Chicago, of course, won the World Series the very next season. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, not only missed the postseason in 2016 and 2017, but failed to even crack the .500 mark.

Now, Pittsburgh is finally breaking up its core. Over the weekend, the Pirates sent right-hander Gerrit Cole to Houston for Colin Moran, outfielder Jason Martin and right-handers Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz. Hot on the heels of that trade, Pittsburgh dealt franchise icon Andrew McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Kyle Crick and Bryan Reynolds.

What does all this mean? First off, Cole is out of the National League. So we’ll all just have to settle for rewatching this wonderful clip of Kyle Schwarber taking him deep into the Allegheny in that ’15 Wild Card game instead.

Young talent prevails in today’s game

Now, most say the Pirates are poised to finish firmly entrenched in the cellar of the National League Central in 2018. Without their two top players from a year ago, what else could they hope for apart from a rebuild?

But I’m here to tell you this. If you take the eye off this team and think they’ll simply roll over for the Cubs and Cardinals, you’ve got another thing coming. And the scary thing is it won’t take too long for the Pirates to be back in contention, either.

For that to happen, though, Pittsburgh needs its young pieces to step up and finally live up to the hype surrounding them. This is exactly what the Cubs needed three years ago – and they got it. Can the Pirates follow that recipe to their first division title since 1992?