Kuzul

The Baltimore Orioles are headed to the postseason for just the third time since the 1997 campaign.

Baltimore clinched a wild-card berth with a 5-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday, as the team shared on Twitter:

The Boston Red Sox won the American League East, relegating the Orioles to the American League Wild Card Game.

The Seattle Mariners were eliminated from contention after a 9-8 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, which left the Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers battling for the two wild-card spots at the start of Sunday’s schedule.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports explained the situation before the Tigers lost to the Atlanta Braves, ensuring it will be Toronto and Baltimore in the Wild Card Game:

While the scenarios were confusing, that didn’t stop the Orioles from celebrating after they knew they did their part. The team shared some of the scenes after Sunday’s win:

Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com passed along more of the celebration:

Kevin Gausman pitched 7.1 inning Sunday, allowing two earned runs. He received some run support from Matt Wieters, who drilled two home runs.

Long balls are nothing new for Baltimore’s offense. As of Sunday, it led the major leagues with 251 home runs, far ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals (224). Mark Trumbo, the team’s primary slugger, was slashing .256/.316/.533 with 47 home runs and 108 RBI entering Sunday’s contest.

Elsewhere, Chris Davis has 38 homers, and Manny Machado has 37. Pedro Alvarez, Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones also each boast more than 20 long balls on the 2016 season.

The team’s slugging was critical as the Orioles earned a trip to the playoffs with lackluster starting pitching, ranking 24th in the big leagues with a 4.74 ERA as of Sunday.

However, Chris Tillman and Gausman both have ERAs below 4.00. In shortened postseason series, they can take the mound multiple times and keep Baltimore in contention.

The Orioles also have a lights-out bullpen that should help shorten those October games. As of Sunday, it was third in the majors with a 3.41 ERA.

Closer Zach Britton, the anchor of the group, had sparkling numbers entering Sunday’s game: a 0.54 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP, 47 saves and 74 strikeouts in 67 innings. A weapon like that at the back end of the bullpen is a scary proposition for any postseason opponent.

Between the bullpen and the power, Baltimore has the pieces to challenge for its first World Series title since the 1983 season.

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The Boston Red Sox announced Sunday that they will retire David Ortiz‘s No. 34, according to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal.

The honors for Ortiz won’t end there, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted:

Ortiz, 40, has had a legendary career. He’s a three-time World Series champion with the Red Sox, a 10-time All-Star and was the 2013 World Series MVP. In his 14 years with the Red Sox, he’s hit .290 with 483 home runs, 1,530 RBI and 1,204 runs.

Ortiz has hit 541 home runs in his 20-year career, which is the 17th-most in MLB history.

He’ll always be remembered for his performance in the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. With the Yankees leading the series 3-0, Ortiz hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 4. In Game 5 the next night, he hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 14th.

The Red Sox won Games 6 and 7 in New York and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to end their 86-year title drought.

Ortiz’s impact went beyond his play on the field, though. After the Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing manhunt in 2013, Ortiz took to the microphone in Fenway Park and told the crowd, “This is our f–kin’ city. And nobody’s gonna dictate our freedom.”

He was clutch, entertaining, charitable and, ultimately, iconic. There have been better players to don the Red Sox uniform, but few have had the impact of Ortiz.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen reportedly will be on the trade block this offseason, according to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Continue for updates.

Growing Buzz That Pirates Will Trade McCutchen

Sunday, Oct. 2

“There is a growing sense among industry insiders that the team will try to deal McCutchen before he reaches free agency in either one or two years,” Biertempfel wrote. “General manager Neal Huntington likely will quietly shop the five-time All-Star during the offseason, if only to gauge the level of interest.”

Jim Duquette of MLB Network said, per Biertempfel: “There are people I’ve talked to who are convinced the Pirates are going to trade McCutchen this winter.”

McCutchen, 29, has struggled this season, hitting just .255 with 24 home runs, 77 RBI, 81 runs and six stolen bases in 13 attempts. His batting average and steals are career lows, and his run total is the lowest since his rookie season.

McCutchen has been one of the National League‘s best and most consistent players over the past five years and was a regular MVP candidate, winning the award in 2013, finishing third in 2012 and 2014, and finishing fifth last season.

“I think they could get two good prospects for McCutchen,” an American League scout told Biertempfel. “They could get a couple of players like [Felipe] Rivero—young, good prospects who are under team control for a while.”

McCutchen is under contract for next season, with a club option for $14.75 million in 2018. To retain him long-term, the Pirates may have to offer a massive contract.

If Pittsburgh shops him instead, it’s easy to imagine teams around baseball expressing interest. Whether that market is lucrative enough for the Pirates to give up their biggest superstar in years is another matter entirely.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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With Major League Baseball’s playoffs just days away, the first 100-win season since 1935 doesn’t mean a thing for Chicago Cubs starter Jon Lester. 

On Saturday, the All-Star left-hander who is tied for the National League lead with 19 wins, made his intentions clear as the calendar flipped to October, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com: “This season isn’t anything unless we do what we showed up at spring training to do—win a World Series. I don’t want to sound like an a–hole or anything, but we really haven’t done anything yet.”

It’s been 108 years since the Cubs won their last World Series, which was the second in franchise history, and while Lester is downplaying his team’s accomplishments, 100-win seasons don’t come around too often in the team’s 141-year history. 

In fact, it’s only happened only six times, including this season:

For Lester, though, the shift to October means that it’s a clean slate, but it’s imperative that his Cubs carry over their regular-season success into the playoffs:

This is the real season now. You play 162 to get to now. … It’s go time. Now we have to live up to the expectations and hype. … The big thing with this team is we’re consistent. We show up every day to play. That’s huge, especially with the young group that we have. That’s hard to do. That’s a hard thing to learn at a young age. These guys do it.

At 32, Lester is an elder statesman on a Cubs team that is riddled with young talent ranging from National League MVP candidate and 24-year-old third baseman Kris Bryant to 22-year-old starting shortstop Addison Russell. 

That youth has brought a swagger of sorts to a downtrodden organization as the Cubs rank third in the MLB in runs, first in team ERA and most importantly, first in wins. 

Lester has done his part to contribute to that team ERA, posting a 2.44 that ranks second in the majors. It’s 0.45 points higher than his Cubs teammate, 26-year-old and league-leader Kyle Hendricks’ 1.99 mark. 

According to Rogers, Lester is slated to pitch Game 1 of the NLDS where the Cubs will meet the winner of the National League Wild Card Game whether it be the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals. 

His veteran presence is sure to be one of the most valued in the clubhouse too as he won a pair of World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and 2013. 

Given the Cubs’ past though, it’s understandable why fans could be entering the postseason as cautiously optimistic supporters. The last time the Cubs even competed in a World Series was 1945, and the following seven decades have been filled with collapses and playoff heartbreak. 

But given the makeup of this team and the way they barnstormed through the league this season, the Cubs have a great chance to end baseball’s longest, most torturous drought this season. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

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Throughout most of the second half, the San Francisco Giants have been cursed by black magic rather than blessed by the strange magic that led them to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

But if Saturday is any indication, they may finally have a handle on that strange magic once again.

Once the St. Louis Cardinals dispatched the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier Saturday afternoon, the Giants knew they needed a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers to keep their one-game lead for the National League‘s second wild card spot. With Clayton Kershaw opposing Ty Blach in just the second start of his major league career, the odds scoffed and said, “Yeah, right.”

Cue the Giants coasting to a relatively easy 3-0 victory, much to the delight of the 40,000 or so fans packed into AT&T Park.

The Giants didn’t put a hurting on Kershaw. Angel Pagan sure did when he opened the scoring by taking the three-time Cy Young winner over the wall in left in the fifth inning. But that was one of only two earned runs the Giants netted off Kershaw in his seven innings. 

The other came in the seventh when Pagan scored from first base after Justin Turner picked up an infield dribbler by Brandon Crawford and chucked it up the right field line. Crawford landed on third base as a result of that and came home on a sacrifice fly by the newly acquired Gordon Beckham.

If this sequence sounds oddly familiar, that’s because it’s a sequence that’s just so very Giants.

Whether it’s Hunter Pence hitting a bases-clearing double on a broken bat or having a sacrifice bunt turned into a walk-off, weird runs just seem to happen for the Giants whenever the pressure is at its highest. Some of that is them being really good at putting the ball in play, thereby frequently finding themselves in spots where anything can happen. Otherwise, it’s just…well, strange magic.

Whatever the case, another staple of the Giants’ even-year runs is them getting unlikely boosts from unheralded young players. Blach became the latest to abide by that tradition on Saturday.

Although Kershaw didn’t pitch poorly in Saturday’s contest, there’s no denying he got out-pitched by the Giants’ rookie left-hander. Blach logged eight shutout innings, allowing only three hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

“We just couldn’t figure him out,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward, via MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick and Chris Haft.

No kidding. Blach gave the Dodgers pitches to hit, throwing first-pitch strikes to 20 of 27 batters and, as Brooks Baseball shows, rarely going outside the strike zone in general in throwing 67 of his 99 pitches for strikes. But he was deceptive from start to finish, working all sides of the zone with his four-seamer and sinker and getting hitters off-balance with his changeup and slider.

Like Crawford, Joe Panik and Matt Duffy before him, Blach didn’t arrive in the San Francisco spotlight by way of the upper crust of Major League Baseball prospects. Baseball America had the 25-year-old Creighton alum ranked No. 20 in just the Giants’ system coming into the year, remarking that he “has a ceiling as a No. 5 starter, but he still has plenty to prove.”

But after struggling with a 4.46 ERA for Triple-A Sacramento last year, Blach found his groove with a 3.43 ERA for Sacramento this year. It could turn out to be just one great start in the long run, but right now his victorious duel against Kershaw looks more like an exclamation point on a breakthrough season.

“Getting to watch that was pretty incredible,” Giants ace Madison Bumgarner said, via Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. “He was lights out the whole day going against one of the best pitchers in baseball. It was definitely something he will never forget.”

Meanwhile, the Giants are not yet out of the woods. Or into the woods, for that matter.

Saturday’s stunner did accomplish one thing: it ensured the Giants will play at least 163 games this season. They haven’t yet clinched a spot in the wild card play-in game on Wednesday at the New York Mets. But should they lose game No. 162 on Sunday while the Cardinals win, the Giants will get a shot at a play-in game for the play-in game on Monday.

A win on Sunday and a trip straight to New York, however, is certainly a possibility. The Giants have outscored the Dodgers 12-3 in the first two games of the series and will be going for the sweep with Matt Moore on the mound. He struck out 11 his last time out.

And in general, the bad times that have forced a 29-42 record on the Giants in the second half seem to be fading. They’ve won three in a row and four out of five. An offense that had been a ball and chain on one ankle and a bullpen that had been a ball and chain on the other ankle are shaping up. The Giants offense entered Saturday’s game with an .895 OPS in the last week. Their bullpen has a 2.65 ERA in that same span.

The Giants haven’t taken the easy road to the doorstep of the postseason, but they couldn’t have picked a better time to start looking more like their usual even-year selves. They’re in a position to get in, and we know what they can do once they get that far.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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For the second time in as many years, the New York Mets are headed to the postseason.

By virtue of Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets clinched a wild-card berth a week after the Washington Nationals celebrated their National League East title.

With the game’s final out in hand, the Mets celebrated on the mound at Citizens Bank Park before they hit the locker room for some champagne showers:

MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo documented the scene in the clubhouse:

DiComo also captured footage of the team celebrating with its fans in Philadelphia:

Following an eight-year playoff drought, the Mets have now joined the postseason party in consecutive years for the first time since 2000.

Though New York’s vaunted pitching staff was dogged by injuries all season—Matt Harvey had season-ending surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, Steven Matz has endured elbow and shoulder ailments and Jacob deGrom underwent season-ending elbow surgery—New York has a shot to defend its National League pennant.

Following a 15-7 start in April, the Mets went 26-30 in May and June before they started to right the ship. After going 13-13 in July and 15-14 in August, they notched 17 wins in 27 September games.

New York also overcame inconsistencies on offense to return to the postseason, as it ranks 12th among the 15 NL clubs with a collective .245 batting average. The only teams with worse marks are the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres.

With Noah Syndergaard headlining a pitching staff that ranks third in the NL in team ERA and starters’ ERA, the Mets look like they may be able to pull off the improbable and return to the World Series. But it will be tough to best the Nationals, Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers.

And first they’ll have to get by the San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card Game.

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All six division titles have already been celebrated around baseball, which leaves just the two wild-card spots in both leagues up for grabs during the final days of the regular season. There are a total of seven teams still battling for those remaining postseason berths.

The close race should lead to ample drama on Sunday afternoon. The league has scheduled every game to start shortly after 3 p.m. ET in order to create a level playing field for all of the teams still in contention, and that increases the entertainment value tenfold.

Let’s check out all of the important dates for the upcoming playoff slate. That’s followed by a look at how the standings shape up with just a few days for those final spots to get claimed.

2016 MLB Postseason Schedule

All playoff games on Fox, Fox Sports 1, MLB Network, ESPN or TBS. Exact TV schedule TBA.

Current Playoff Picture

The Chicago Cubs are going to enter the playoffs as the clear favorite (+220 moneyline, via Odds Shark), regardless of which teams earn the remaining berths over the next couple of days. The NL Central champions are the only team to reach 100 wins and own a ridiculous plus-252 run differential.

As always, however, the age-old debate about rest vs. rust has come into play once again. Managers are tasked with doing their best to ensure no major injuries occur after clinching the division, but too many days of rest can hurt a rhythm that’s allowed the team to have success all season.

Cubs skipper Joe Maddon explained his thought process to Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago when asked about starters like Jake Arrieta and John Lackey going almost two weeks between outings by the time the postseason arrives:

That’s always been the major complaint I’ve heard. It’s just up to us to handle it properly. Now, of course, it may be difficult or rusty or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know. And then again, the rest might just do somebody really good. It just depends on the individual. These are the kind of things that are kind of outside of your control.

It’s one of those intangible factors all of the division winners are dealing with over the final days, and it could play a major role early in the postseason.

That said, the main focus right now is on the wild-card chase.

In the American League, the Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners are all riding three-game winning streaks (as of Friday) while the Toronto Blue Jays are on a three-game skid. It’s pushed Toronto to the brink after looking pretty safe coming into the final week.

The schedule is favorable to Detroit, which may be forced to play an additional make-up game Monday against the Cleveland Indians. The Tigers are facing the Atlanta Braves, who have played better lately but still own the league’s third-worst record and are now focused on getting young players some at-bats.

Baltimore is also in promising shape. It owns a one-game advantage for the top wild-card spot, meaning a 1-1 finish should be enough to get in. The Orioles have Kevin Gausman on the mound against the New York Yankees’ Luis Cessa on Sunday, a clear edge just in case they lose Saturday.

The biggest question really surrounds the Blue Jays. They still control their own destiny despite the struggles over the past few days, but it can be tough to break out of a funk as the pressure continues to mount, particularly when playing on the road against the division-winning Boston Red Sox.

Seattle is still a threat, too. It owns a clear pitching advantage in both weekend games against the Oakland Athletics. Winning both would force either Toronto or Detroit to win out to finish above the Mariners’ potential 88 victories.

All told, the Orioles and Tigers feel like the teams in the best position, but there will probably be some chaos before the dust settles Sunday and possibly beyond. Lisa Kerney of ESPN summed it up well:

The National League race is a bit less crowded with just three teams battling for the two spots, but all of them are legitimate World Series threats if they do sneak in.

It’s hard to see the reigning NL champion New York Mets missing out. They need one win over the final two days with Bartolo Colon and Noah Syndergaard slated to start against a Philadelphia Phillies squad that’s lost five straight.

Assuming New York gets in, that leaves the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to fight for one berth with the Giants currently holding a one-game edge.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision not to rest their starting pitchers quite as aggressively as the aforementioned Cubs could hurt San Francisco, though. Clayton Kershaw and Kenta Maeda are slated to start the final two games against the Giants’ 19th-ranked offense.

That leaves the door open for St. Louis. The Cardinals have been a model of consistency for almost two decades, highlighted by a pair of World Series titles. Two wins should at least force a playoff, and they hold a pitching edge in both remaining games against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ultimately, the close races paired with the Tigers’ potential need for a make-up game Monday could make for a scheduling nightmare for MLB. It’s still possible there could be a four-way tie in the AL and a three-way tie in the NL to get sorted out next week.

These races tend to figure themselves out before those types of extreme scenarios come into play, though. That said, it’s a good thing the wild-card fight is as close as it is, because the competition within the divisions this season was over early.

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The Atlanta Braves have reportedly begun the process of interviewing in-house candidates for their vacant managerial position, but they still plan to speak with other options from outside the organization.

Continue for updates.

Braves Talk About Job With Three Coaches

Saturday, Oct. 1

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Saturday the Braves discussed the opening with third base coach Bo Porter, first base coach Eddie Perez and bench coach Terry Pendleton on Friday. Brian Snitker has filled in on an interim basis since Fredi Gonzalez was fired in May.

It’s no surprise Atlanta is planning to take its time to consider every alternative, including coaches from both inside and outside the club. The Braves are looking to take their first major step forward in 2017 after an often painful rebuilding process.

In addition to the arrival of some top prospects, led by shortstop Dansby Swanson, the team is also preparing to open its new home—SunTrust Park—next year.

Although the job could attract interest with the Braves ready to start climbing the standings, Snitker has emerged as a strong candidate to transition from an interim role into the full-time manager.

Jesse Spector of the Sporting News commented on how well the team, which looked destined to finish at the bottom of the standings by a significant margin early in the season, has played since the managerial change:

The 60-year-old coaching veteran, who’s managed all around the Braves’ minor-league system, told Mark Bowman of MLB.com this week he’d “love” to keep the job into 2017 and beyond, but general manager John Coppolella didn’t commit to anything.

“[Snitiker] has been outstanding on the field and off the field,” Coppolella said. “He’s been exactly what we’ve needed right now. We’ll continue to evaluate it and see which direction we go.”

Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish reported in May that Los Angeles Angels special assistant Bud Black and Boston Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo were potential outside candidates for the position.

Ultimately, it would be tough for the Braves to go away from Snitker given how well the team, which remains short on talent as it awaits more highly rated prospects to arrive in the big leagues, has performed under his guidance in recent months.

Atlanta can afford to give the interim manager a couple of years to prove himself while the team makes the transition back into a legitimate contender in the National League.

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They won’t have Matt Harvey, they won’t have Jacob deGrom, and they won’t have Daniel Murphy.

If you’re expecting the New York Mets to be the same roadblock they were for the Chicago Cubs they were last October, well, a lot of the power pitching is hurt, and the power-hitting second baseman is gone.

But they do have Jay Bruce.    

A week ago, you’d laugh when you said that. A week ago, Mets fans would cringe or worse if you said it.

But now the Mets are nearly assured of getting back to the postseason, and Bruce is part of the reason. Now the Mets are one regular-season win and one Wild Card Game win away from an October rematch with the Cubs, and Bruce is a reason to think they might just have a chance again.

“We knew when we got him, if he starts swinging the bat, he changes our whole lineup,” Mets manager Terry Collins said on the Mets TV broadcast Friday night after Bruce’s three hits and three RBI keyed the 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies that dropped the Mets’ magic number to one. “Hopefully he can stay hot from now on.”

Presumably Collins meant from now to whenever the Mets are done in 2016. Bruce’s history through eight-and-a-half years with the Cincinnati Reds tells you he can stay hot for a while and that he can carry a team when he does.

That same history tells you he can get ridiculously cold and can drive his own team up the wall when he does.

The Mets saw that after acquiring Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds Aug. 1. Their fans saw it, and because they’d never really seen the hot version of Bruce, they booed him almost nonstop during the team’s last homestand. They stopped only when they didn’t have a chance, because Collins pinch hit for Bruce—with Eric Campbell!—and then left him out of the lineup four straight days.

The final day of that benching was last Saturday, and that night, Bruce pinch hit in the ninth inning and hit his first home run in three weeks (he went 3-for-39 in those three weeks, with no extra-base hits and one RBI).

Since then, Bruce has been back in the lineup every game, and he’s hit safely in each one. The Mets have won every game but one.

Beginning with that home run, Bruce has 10 hits in 20 at-bats, and four of them have left the ballpark.

As my friend Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal tweeted sarcastically Friday:

With Bruce, with Yoenis Cespedes, with a revitalized Jose Reyes and an impressive Asdrubal Cabrera, the Mets head toward October with a lineup that might match or beat the one they rode to the World Series a year ago. They’ll need it, because as well as Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman (who won again Friday) have done as fill-in starters, it’s a little much to expect them to dominate in October the way Harvey or deGrom could.

Even if this season ends with a wild-card loss next Wednesday or even if it ends with a division-series loss to a Cubs team that will be heavily favored, the Mets can be proud of what they’ve done.

They lost three-fifths of their Opening Day rotation and also Zack Wheeler, the young power pitcher who was supposed to come back from Tommy John surgery and join the rotation at midseason. Three of the four starting infielders suffered major injuries, and two remain out.

They were 60-62 on Aug. 20, when they had just lost Steven Matz and were about to lose deGrom. They’ve gone 26-12 since then, the best record in the major leagues in that span.

Most of that came with minimal contributions from Bruce, who was leading the National League in RBI at the time of the trade but drove in just 11 runs in his first 42 games with the Mets.

It’s only been a week since then, two games against the Phillies sandwiched around a series against a Miami Marlins team stunned by Jose Fernandez’s death. It’s not much.

But Bruce’s history says these hot streaks can last. The Mets hope this one does.

Already, Bruce has the hits that have them on the verge of clinching a playoff spot. Now maybe he can give them the hits that help make that playoff spot count.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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After locking up president Theo Epstein, the Chicago Cubs are keeping the rest of their dynamic front-office trio together with extensions for general manager Jed Hoyer and vice president Jason McLeod.  

According to the Cubs’ official Twitter account, Hoyer and McLeod each received five-year extensions through 2021. 

The trio of Epstein, Hoyer and McLeod joined the Cubs in October 2011 after previously working together with the Boston Red Sox from 2003 to 2009. 

As part of the team’s announcement on Friday, Epstein praised the work of Hoyer and McLeod to help make the Cubs into what they are, per Carrie Muskat of MLB.com:

Jed and Jason are simply the best at what they do and have played fundamentally important leadership roles in helping the Cubs build a healthy and thriving organization. We feel honored to have the stability and support that we enjoy throughout baseball operations and look forward to many years of working together in Chicago.

Epstein received his own five-year extension from the Cubs on Wednesday. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported it could be in excess of $50 million. 

Since this new front-office regime has taken over in Chicago, the Cubs have become the model franchise in Major League Baseball. They have hit big with draft picks such as Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber as well as shrewd trades that landed Jake Arrieta, Addison Russell, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Hendricks. 

Those personnel moves, along with the development of players who were previously in the system such as Javier Baez and Willson Contreras, have led the Cubs to their first regular season with at least 100 wins since 1935. 

Given the volume of young talent already on the Cubs roster, as well as the franchise’s knack for drafting and developing in the minors, the success of the last two years is only the beginning of what Epstein, Hoyer and McLeod are capable of when they are working together. 

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