The Chicago Cubs (Diamond) Dynasty that could have been

The Chicago Cubs began building a dynasty when Theo Epstein arrived. They realized that goal first in 2015 by making a deep playoff run and then by winning it all in 2016. They made a deep playoff run again in 2017 but after that the wheels began to slowly fall off and piece after piece was dealt to teams actually trying to win baseball games.

This article is going to look at the team that could have been if the Cubs hadn't dealt away all of that talent and paint the picture of what your Diamond Dynasty squad could look like in MLB the Show 23 if you wanted to see how they could play together in a virtual world.

Trigger warning for all Cubs fans: this is going to be tough to read.

The Infield

Willson Contreras 

Position: Catcher

Team: St. Louis Cardinals 

Series: May Topps Now

Overall: 94

Contreras did something that a handful of players before him have done: he left for the Cardinals. Dexter Fowler did it, Ryan Theriot did it and now Contreras has done it. Cubs fans pretty much universally still love Dexter Fowler because Dexter Fowler continued to love Cubs fans. However, Theriot and Contreras both had some anti-Cubs sentiments that they chose to air publicly which led to their returns to the Friendly Confines to be considerably less friendly. 

That being said, Contreras is one of the best catchers in the game coming in with solid contact against righties (95) and great power against lefties (103). He’s a double diamond in the hitting and defense categories and has a 94 arm rating to gun down runners. He’s a nice piece for this super team.

Anthony Rizzo

Position: First Base

Team: New York Yankees

Series: May Topps Now

Overall: 94

Unlike Contreras, Rizzo didn’t have much of a choice when he was shown the door in July of 2021. He could’ve signed an extension but by most accounts, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer were miles away from the 2016 Championship team’s demands so they chose to move on. 

You’ll notice that neither Kevin Alcantara nor Alexander Vizcaino are on this team and that’s because the two minor leaguers that the Cubs received for Rizzo are still in the minors and Vizcaino has only appeared in six games since being traded to Chicago. Rizzo has good contact numbers and a 103 power against righties, plus his swing is immaculate.

Javier Baez

Position: Shortstop

Team: Detroit Tigers

Series: Charisma

Overall: 97

Unlike the Gleyber Torres trade, that I can at least pretend not to be bitter about, this is one I’m not even going to pretend on. Sure, he’s been really bad since signing a really big contract with the Tigers (.219/.265/.306 this season), but he was the heart and soul of the best team the Chicago Cubs ever put on the field. 

This Javy card isn’t spectacular and it’s not as good as the Silver Slugger card he got last year, but it’s still a solid player with double diamonds hitting and fielding and it’s nice to have El Mago back in Cubbies pinstripes, even if he only has gold fielding to pair with his diamond hitting stats. 

D.J. LeMahieu

Position: Third Base

Team: New York Yankees

Series: Incognito

Overall: 95

LeMahieu was the first major trade made in the Epstein era. It saw the Cubs trade LeMahieu and what would become his 30.6 career WAR for Ian Stewart and the 0.0 WAR he earned as a Cub in his one season with the team in 2012. If the Cubs already had Javy and LeMahieu, would they have looked for a different return than Addison Russell in the Samardzjia deal? How different could this team have looked? 

Either way, regardless of what the team would have done it’s not bad to have a double diamond at the hot corner. We chose not to go with Kris Bryant’s Charisma card on this one even though he’s no longer with the team and he’s a 99 in the game because his card IS a Cubs card and we’re going to do another piece that builds the best possible All-Cubs roster next week. 

Outfield & DH

Eloy Jiminez

Position: Left Field

Team: Chicago White Sox

Series: Charisma

Overall: 97

Do you know a player that is universally loved by all Cubs fans? Jose Quintana. (Insert Borat “Notttttt” GIF). When the team was looking to turn brief success into a dynasty they tried to find a cost-controlled, innings-eating middle-of-the-rotation arm and all it cost them was their top two prospects that would go on to bright careers with their hated cross-town rivals.

Eloy Jiminez may have had some problems with injuries recently, but his diamond bat is absolutely useful in a video game world and his defense in the corner isn’t bad enough to offset his solid arm for hosing runners at the plate. 

Cody Bellinger

Position: Center Field

Team: Los Angeles Dodgers

Series: Home Run Derby

Overall: 97

This one may be putting the cart before the horse slightly, considering Bellinger is still a member of the Chicago Cubs at the time of writing. That being said, he’s a Gold Glove caliber defender (even if this card only has silver fielding) at multiple positions that can hit for average and power while also stealing bases on a team that is hovering around last in the division. He’s not going to be a Cub for long.

So that’s why he’s the starting center fielder on this squad. He can slot in just about anywhere in the lineup and his bat will absolutely play, especially this Home Run Derby version of the card that has dummy pop and a sweet left-handed swing. 

Jorge Soler

Position: Right Field

Team: Miami Marlins

Series: Charisma

Overall: 97

I love when people that make a career out of being baseball analysts are condescending to fans and say things like “there’s no such thing as too many good prospects, it will figure itself out.” Jorge Soler is a great example of it “figuring itself out,” as the Cubs were unable to find a closer on the free agent market and were incapable of developing one themselves, so they dealt from their depth to get one solid season of Wade Davis. 

All Soler did from that point on was hit 124 home runs. Now that the National League has a DH and the position prospect pipeline dried up the Soler trade doesn’t look like a trade from a treasure trove, it looks like we reverse-mortgaged our house. That being said, his defense in the outfield is pretty mediocre but the power in that bat is real so it makes him a great player to have in a video game. 

Kyle Schwarber

Position: Left-Handed DH

Team: Philadelphia Phillies

Series: World Baseball Classic

Overall: 90

There’s not much to say on this one that everyone doesn’t already know. Kyle Schwarber was one of the best draft picks the Cubs have ever made. They shocked the world by taking a catcher from the Big Ten and signing him to an under-slot deal before transitioning him to primarily play the outfield so that his big left-handed bat could play. 

They decided to non-tender him after a disappointing 2020 only to watch him put together an all-star year the following season in Washington and Boston with 32 home runs. Since he left the Cubs, Schwarber has 94 homers and while the WBC version of him still isn’t a great defender in the outfield he is more than good enough to carry the DH spot if you’re going up against a RHP. 

Dan Vogelbach

Position: Right-Handed DH

Team: New York Mets

Series: Charisma

Overall: 95

This is a player that I feel like the Cubs legitimately gave a chance to be successful for as long as they could before they moved on. He was a first baseman on a team that seemingly had Rizzo as the answer long-term and no possibility of playing DH on the horizon. Chicago flipped him to Seattle for LHP Mike Montgomery, who ended up doing just fine with the Cubs.

That being said, Big Dan has become a professional hitter. He was a All-Star in 2019 when he hit 30 homers for Seattle and he’s parlayed that into a nice journeyman career that’s seen him play for five teams. Last year he had a .830 OPS and as a short-side of a platoon with Kyle Schwarber, he’s not a bad option to have against LHP in the DH spot. 

Starting Pitchers

Greg Maddux

Position: Right-Handed Starting Pitcher

Team: Atlanta Braves

Series: Incognito

Overall: 99

Ok so this timeline doesn’t really line up, but you’ve got to find a way to fit The Professor into the rotation. Greg Maddux is not only an incredible former Cub, but his existence and career path also lead to some level of hope that we could see a return of some of the other players on this incredible roster.

He is maxed in some important categories, but most importantly he’s going to limit the walks and hits. He’s also rocking a 125 stamina and clutch, so you’re going to need to royally mess up if he’s getting pulled from the game in favor of the stellar relievers we’ve got in the bullpen. 

Yu Darvish

Position: Right-Handed Starting Pitcher

Team: San Diego Padres

Series: World Baseball Classic

Overall: 99

Darvish is such an interesting piece of Chicago Cubs history. He signed a $126 million dollar deal when it looked like the Cubs would be perennial World Series contenders and then was dealt for three teenagers, a 20-year-old and Zach Davies. It’s rare to see a player experience the pinnacle and collapse of a team that they signed within a single contract cycle but Darvish did just that. 

He’s got 99 velocities, 99 breaks and enough stamina that he shouldn’t have to be removed unless you really want to. His timing is also pretty easy to get locked down with regard to the pitching mechanics, making him one of the best possible pitchers to have. 

Relief Pitchers

Andrew Chafin

Position: Left-Handed Setup 

Team: Detroit Tigers

Series: Charisma

Overall: 92

This is true of every reliever on this list (and some relievers that didn’t make this list as they inexplicably don’t have a diamond card in the game, looking at you Alex Lange), but I bet the Cubs wish they still had this guy on the roster. The Cubs traded Chafin to the A’s back in 2021 and got AAA reliever Daniel Palencia out of it. The jury is still out on that deal, but one guy has a diamond card in MLB the Show 23 and the other has no card at all.

Chafin isn’t built to miss bats, but his pitch mix will lead to plenty of soft contact and double play balls. If you somehow find yourself in a sticky situation once Darvish/Maddux/Wood/Prior have come off the mound and you need someone to clean up the inning, Chafin will be your guy. 

Craig Kimbrel

Position: Right-Handed Closer

Team: Philadelphia Phillies

Series: Milestone

Overall: 99

The Cubs went over their perceived budget to bring in Craig Kimbrel and try to keep the championship window open. He was terrible in 2019 and almost equally terrible in 2020 but he was incredible in 2021 with a 0.49 ERA at the time of his trade to the White Sox. The Cubs got Nick Madrigal (currently in AAA) and Codi Heuer (currently in AAA) and Craig Kimbrel has now earned his 400th career save. Cool.

If you’re looking for a unique player look no further. Kimbrel has an… interesting… way to get  set with his arm out at a right angle and it adds a little something fun to the end of a game. Aside from that he’s got 125 H/9 and 125 K/9 which means he’s essentially a guaranteed lockdown to close it out.

Aroldis Chapman

Position: Left-Handed Closer

Team: Cincinnati Reds

Series: Incognito

Overall: 99

This is a rare instance of the player the Cubs traded (Gleyber Torres) making the list as well as the player he was traded for (Aroldis Chapman). Nothing depicts an exceptionally well-run organization like trading a top prospect for a rental only to watch that rental return to the team you got him from a few months earlier. 

Without Aroldis Chapman, the Cubs may not have won the 2016 World Series, but as good as he was that year, this card is even better. He has 125 H/9, 125 K/9, and 125 Clutch. Essentially that means it doesn’t matter what situation you put him in, he’s going to strike the guy out to end the game. Especially if it’s a guy that hasn’t hit a homer all postseason… But seriously, he’s great.

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