Chicago Cubs: What constitutes a successful season in 2018?

Chicago Cubs fans have grown to a certain level of success in recent years. With that, comes a feel of expectations – and sometimes, they’re a bit lofty.

With the additions of Yu Darvish, Brandon Morrow and Tyler Chatwood in the offseason, the Chicago Cubs announced to their fanbase and Major League Baseball that they were moving on from the success of the past few years and trying to achieve even greater heights going forward.

In other words, while the Cubs had their proverbial “window” open, they were going to go for it and attempt to keep that window open even longer by adding quality pieces to an already deep team.

Unfortunately, we all know about the best laid plans of mice and men. They often go awry. And awry. And awry again.

Chicago Cubs: Injuries, issues and everything else

None of the three aforementioned high-priced free agents the Cubs signed this past offseason have thrown a meaningful pitch in over a month. Tyler Chatwood is the only one who has even thrown a pitch in a game this month. And it wasn’t meaningful.

Addison Russell has been either mediocre, hurt, or on administrative leave all season. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo have both spent time on the DL this season, and KB has only appeared in 98 games this season.

Pedro Strop (our de facto closer with Morrow injured), also went down when told to bat during a game in which he probably should have been lifted for a pinch hitter. Willson Contreras hasn’t been anywhere near the guy we saw in the second half last season.

I could really go on and on, but we all get it. Injuries and other less desirable things happen over the course of a 162-game baseball season. It’s baseball. Even the best teams on paper and throughout the regular season suffer slumps, lose players to injuries, and ultimately fail. So, what does this mean for how we define success for the Cubs in 2018?

Chicago Cubs: A success no matter how you measure it

The Cubs are already a success. Period. End of story. They’ve overcome a myriad of issues, finding themselves back in the postseason for the fourth consecutive season.  And, as any baseball fan will tell you, you just want to get a ticket for the dance.  That ticket was punched the other day against the Pirates, but it’s not quite the ticket that most of us want yet.

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Joe Maddon even lamented the fact that his players didn’t even celebrate when they clinched a “berth” in the postseason.  Hopefully, that’s because the players have their eyes set on bigger and better things, namely a third-straight division title.

Maddon, quite frankly, has probably done his best job managing the Cubs this season; the team has 94 wins (with two games remaining) and it seems like we have 39 if you go on Twitter.

The addition of some logic and rational thought coupled with a little reflection tells Cubs fans the season has already been a success. That being said, we have become greedy and now take a certain level of success for granted.  That minimum success threshold has been met and crossed by locking in another trip to the postseason.  However, would anyone really deem the season a success if the Cubs end up playing in the Wild Card and heading home in a loss?

The answer is an emphatic no. Fans, players, coaches, the front office and owners alike expect a bit more. At the beginning of the season, all those people were probably saying or thinking “World Series or bust.”  At this point, with the plan gone awry, a successful season would probably see the Cubs getting to and winning the NLDS.  Once in the NLCS (which would be the fourth-straight for the Cubs, for the record), anything could happen; and while it would be an acrimonious end to the season, most everyone would probably chalk up the “early exit” to injuries and off-field issues.