(Ok, Schwarber never left. But he’s having a career year.)
One of the saddest parts of the Cubs crumbling after 2017 was how many years were left in everybody’s career. When everybody got traded in 2021, we thought this would be sad because we’d have to watch them become loved somewhere else. Instead, it became sad because we watched them become hated somewhere else. For stretches last season, Kris Bryant, Javy Báez, and Willson Contreras were all around the bottom of every offensive leaderboard. Báez was bad enough to make Tigers fans hate him. Bryant was bad enough that Rockies fans would have hated him were Rockies fans not numb to the entire sport of baseball.
By the end of last season, only eight out of 410 MLB players* were worse than Bryant. Only 30 were worse than Báez. Only 72—18% of them—were worse than Anthony Rizzo. The Cubs’ three biggest stars from the back half of the 2010’s were all below replacement level, and at an average age of only 32. It’s the kind of thing that makes some of us wish great evil upon Chili Davis. At least in our weaker moments.
Bryant and Rizzo have not bounced back. Bryant’s back won’t let him play. No MLB team wants Rizzo, even with a few first base holes out there. Báez, however, is on fire. So is Kyle Schwarber. El Mago’s batting .319. Moved to the outfield, he’s one of 14% of players Statcast grades as multiple outs above average defensively. Only eleven players in all of baseball have been better overall in 2025. Schwarber, meanwhile, is tied for the MLB lead in home runs and has reached base in every game this season.
The 2016 Cubs aren’t back. Bryant and Rizzo were the faces of the 2015–21 era and the middle of the order. But. The Cubs’ vibes are Back.
Last night, while Báez hit a pair of three-run dingers and walked it off against the Red Sox, the Cubs came back down two runs in the bottom of the ninth to keep their lead in the NL Central. The team is fun again. The team is good again, even with its two best pitchers down. Wrigley Field is consistently rocking like it hasn’t since 2019. And Schwarber’s having a career year, while Báez starts a renaissance?
This is bigger than coincidence.
There was always a gradient to the Cubs’ core. Bryant and Rizzo were the core of the core. Báez and Willson Contreras were close. Schwarber wasn’t really ever that integral, but he was so cool and such a folk hero that the longer time goes on, the more we lump him in with the rest of them. But what we really missed was this: While Bryant and Rizzo were the core of the baseball core, Báez and Schwarber were the core of the vibes core. They were the ones who made the Cubs a blast. And now that their stars finally aligning again, the cosmos has no choice but to ratchet up the happiness at Clark & Addison.
It’s too early to worry about the Cubs running into the Phillies or Tigers in October.
But we might look for YouTube videos of planets colliding, just to see what it would look like.
*Min. 150 PA, fWAR/PA.
**
