Chicago Cubs: 5 bold predictions for the regular season

Spring training is always an exciting time - but there's nothing like Opening Day and the promise of a new season at hand. The Cubs kick things off against the Brewers on Thursday at Wrigley Field, embarking on a 162-game marathon with a goal of returning to the postseason, and winning a postseason game for the first time since 2017.

The roster features a ton of new faces, including some major bounceback candidates - as Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins continue to reshape the organization following the 2020 departure of longtime president of baseball operations Theo Epstein. It should be an exciting year, to be sure, so without further ado, here are 5 bold regular season predictions for the Cubs.

5 bold Cubs regular season predictions: #5 - Cody Bellinger bounces back

For the Cubs to make a serious run at the NL Central crown, Cody Bellinger doesn't have to get back to his NL MVP level but he needs to take some serious strides in that direction.

Last season with the Dodgers, the former Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star slashed just .210/.265/.389 - good for a 78 OPS+. That works out to 1.2 bWAR and, at a $17 million salary, it's not hard to figure out why Los Angeles cut ties with Bellinger last winter, allowing the Cubs to land him on a one-year prove-it contract.

If Bellinger can get back to being a league average (or a little better) bat and bring his usual Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field, the Cubs are going to come away feeling great about this signing. Finally healthy after injuries had him making all sorts of tweaks to his mechanics, Bellinger has all the makings of a breakout candidate heading into 2023.

5 bold Cubs regular season predictions: #4 - Jameson Taillon makes his first All-Star team

The Cubs' top pitching addition of the offseason, Jameson Taillon, put together an impressive spring training, pitching 18 1/3 innings across five outings while striking out 23 and walking zero.

The veteran right-hander was a workhorse for the Yankees in 2022 and replicating what he did in New York would go a long way toward solidifying the Cubs' starting rotation. Armed with a new 'sweeper' putaway pitch could help him drive more strikeouts than he has historically and, hopefully, take his game to a new level this year.

In his career, he's never even averaged a strikeout per inning. Despite that, though, he carries a career 3.80 FIP across nearly 800 regular season innings. Limiting hard contact has been the name of his game and, no doubt, he'll look to continue that in a Cubs uniform.

Pair that with the team's lockdown defense up the middle with Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson and it's not hard to envision a scenario where the former first-rounder puts together the best season of his career in 2023.

5 bold Cubs regular season predictions: #3 - Cubs trade Ian Happ at the deadline after Brennen Davis lights up Triple-A pitching

It can't all be sunshine and rainbows, folks. The Cubs are, no doubt, trying to force their way into the expanded postseason picture in 2023. But the focus can, and should, be on building a sustainable winner on the North Side, which might force the front office into a 'thread the needle' scenario when it comes to balancing the short and long-term priorities.

Although the Cubs got an extension done with Nico Hoerner, no such progress was made with All-Star outfielder Ian Happ, despite his reported willingness to take a hometown discount on a deal. If he replicates his performance from last year, when he earned his first All-Star nod and a Gold Glove in left field, he'll hit the open market as arguably the most valuable position player not named Shohei Ohtani.

Barring an in-season extension between now and July, I could see the Cubs shopping Happ ahead of the trade deadline - but if the team is in contention, I think such a scenario is contingent on top prospect Brennen Davis being healthy and putting up big numbers at Triple-A Iowa. If Davis shows he's back on track and ready to impact the big league roster, trading Happ becomes at least a little more palatable.

Switch-hitting, Gold Glove-winning outfielders don't grow on trees, though, and I'd like to see Happ stick with the Cubs. But I'm trying to set realistic expectations here and there's just no way the front office is content with a compensatory draft pick as opposed to what they could get via trade (although I said the same thing about Willson Contreras last summer, so do with that what you will).

5 bold Cubs regular season predictions: #1 - Miguel Amaya stays on the field, plays 100+ games in the minors

It wasn't that long ago that Miguel Amaya was pre-annointed as the heir apparent to Willson Contreras. The possibility of Contreras walking in free agency, as he did this winter, wasn't as big of a concern then because it felt like the organization had an answer waiting in the wings.

But that's all changed now. Amaya has played 100 games in a season just once in his professional career, back in 2018 with Class-A South Bend. He followed up that 116 game body of work with a 99-game season in 2019, but it's been injury after injury since and he's fallen out of favor on the national scene.

The 2020 MiLB season was scrapped due to COVID - and between the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, Amaya has managed a grand total of 63 games. He played well with Double-A Tennessee, posting an .864 OPS, but getting his workload back over the century mark in 2023 would go a long way toward re-establishing his stock with the club.

Given the age of the Cubs' primary catching tandem (Yan Gomes turns 36 in July and Tucker Barnhart is 32) - seeing Amaya re-establish himself as a legitimate long-term answer behind the plate would be a welcome surprise.