Odds do not favor Chicago Cubs World Series matchup against White Sox

The Chicago Cubs have spent over $300MM in Major League Baseball free agency this offseason but the expectation is that the team has not yet reached the level of being a World Series contender as they were from 2016 through 2018. That is why it should not be a complete surprise to see the unlikely odds of a 2023 World Series matchup between the Cubs and Chicago White Sox.

The timeline of the White Sox ascension in comparison to the downfall of the Cubs regression has been a fascinating storyline for Chicago baseball fans. Once it become clear that the Cubs were no longer a perennial World Series contender, beginning in 2019, the White Sox were on the climb. That climb was set to put the White Sox at the forefront of the Chicago baseball scene and become the primary team in turn.

The White Sox momentum appeared to have been halted at the beginning of the 2021 season when the team hired Tony La Russa as their manager. La Russa's hiring was spun in the narrative of the White Sox finally having the manager to lead them to the World Series while allowing team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to make right a mistake that was made during La Russa's previous stint as the team's manager. La Russa's second run as White Sox manager was a failure as the team was eliminated in the first round of the 2021 Major League Baseball postseason and failed to make the postseason in 2022.

Now, with the 2023 season just over a month away, the Cubs appear ready to reclaim the Chicago baseball scene. Both the Cubs and White Sox are teams that are dependent on multiple "ifs" needing to become reality in order to contend for a postseason spot in 2023 and that is why an all-Chicago World Series is not likely this season.