Chicago Cubs World Series appearance considered unlikely by insiders

We are to the point in the offseason where things have slowed to a crawl (although some would make the argument that the Chicago Cubs offseason never got out of a crawl to begin with). 

Sure, the Brewers traded their ace, but aside from that the proverbial stove is not that hot right now. When that happens, it leads to some outside-of-the-box thinking for article ideas and MLB.com came in with one that should at least grab some attention from Cubs fans.

Earlier this week MLB.com broke down the most likely rematches for the World Series based on matchups from the last 23 years. 

Both the Astros and Dodgers receive a fair amount of love on the list which is to be expected as both of them appear multiple times in the top five. It should also come as no surprise that the last four World Series matchups are in the top five most likely considering the teams that made it haven’t had a ton of turnover since those seasons.

However, you’d have to scroll all the way to the 17th most likely matchup before you’d see a rematch of the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Guardians.

MLB.com believes it is more likely that the Detroit Tigers make the World Series and play either the San Francisco Giants (15th most likely) or the St. Louis Cardinals (16th most likely). 

The only matchups that are less likely than the Cubs facing off with the Guardians are:

A 2002 rematch between the LA Angels and San Francisco Giants

A 2019 rematch between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals

A 2014 rematch between the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants

A 2015 rematch between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets

A 2007 rematch between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies

A 2005 rematch between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros

Of those six matchups, one featured a team that lost the best player in Major League Baseball (Los Angeles Angels), two featured the team with the second-fewest wins in baseball last season (Kansas City Royals), one featured the team with the third-fewest wins in baseball last season (Colorado Rockies), one featured the team with the fifth-fewest wins in baseball last season (Washington Nationals), and the other is physically impossible as both the White Sox and Astros are now in the American League (Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox). 

All of that to say, MLB.com really doesn’t like the idea of the Guardians and Cubs matching up this year in the World Series. It has to be because of the Guardians right? Right?

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