Chicago Cubs: Trevor Bauer is out of the National League Central
The Chicago Cubs traded away the guy, Yu Darvish, who came in second place for the National League Cy Young to the San Diego Padres. Well, the guy who won the award, Trevor Bauer, is off to the NL West as well as he is now with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is an insane movement out of the division as it seems like every team (besides the Pirates) has a chance to win this thing. The Cubs won’t have to face Bauer on a regular basis anymore though which is nice.
The Chicago Cubs will still play against Bauer as he remains in the National League.
The Chicago Cubs will still play the Los Angeles Dodgers a fair amount of times but not as many as they did when he was on the Reds. They could, however, play the Dodgers in the playoffs if they squeak out a division title and the Dodgers have the best record in baseball. It doesn’t really matter, however, as the Cubs just need to mainly focus on taking care of business against the teams in their division and that will be easier without Bauer.
As for the Dodgers, they are loaded. They are coming off of a World Series victory in 2020 and they were pretty much the best team in the league from beginning to end. Now, they have a rotation that is seven pitchers deep. Trevor Bauer, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, David Price, Dustin May, Julio Urias, and Tony Gonsolin are all awesome and could impact the team in different ways.
With a group like that, they are legit World Series contenders. The Padres made so many great additions, including Darvish, and after all of that, they are still behind the Dodgers. The Cubs had a chance to do something similar when they won the World Series but instead, they traded their top position prospect and top pitching prospect for a number three pitcher in Jose Quintana, wasted money on Tyler Chatwood, and fired their manager a few years later.
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Now that this free agent chip has fallen, it feels like the MLB world will start looking towards Spring Training. There is still a lot to be resolved with the Cubs going forward but the players on this roster will go into it with a mindset that they can win.