Chicago Cubs: An emotional 2021 season is finally over

The 2021 Chicago Cubs season is over. It was an emotional year that put fans through it all over the course of the season. Early on, the Cubs looked like they were going to compete for yet another division title. They were so hot for a while there but it all came crashing down. After a lot of losing, it became clear that a rebuild was imminent.

Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant are all on expiring contracts. As a result, it was obvious that if they weren’t resigning, they were getting traded. None of them resigned before the trade deadline so the Cubs traded them to the New York Yankees, New York Mets, and San Francisco Giants respectively.

It was hard for fans to accept but it needed to be done. For good measure, the Cubs also traded Joc Pederson to the Atlanta Braves along with both Craig Kimbrel and Ryan Tepera to the Chicago White Sox. It was the definition of a wholesale change.

On Sunday, the Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to bring their final record to 71-91. It is a bad record but it may get a bit worse before it gets better. The Cubs, however, didn’t come in last place of the NL Central. They were ten games better than the Pittsburgh Pirates who finished the season at 61-101.

Although they were already clinched into the postseason, it had to feel good for the Cubs to win the last series of the season against their biggest rivals. There is always a sense of pride for an MLB team when the season comes to a close and this was a great example of that.

Things weren’t all bad for the Chicago Cubs during the 2021 regular season.

As bad as it was, there were some good things to come out of it. Guys like Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel came out of nowhere for the Cubs and were so good. Each of them became impact players in their late 20s so it will be interesting to see what the Cubs do with them going forward. You would think that they are in consideration to be back next year.

It is going to be a very interesting offseason for the Cubs. They may try to compete or they might continue to rebuild the right day. The first thing on their list needs to be to take care of Willson Contreras. They either need to sign him long-term (he only has one year left on his deal) or trade him away for prospects.

After that, there will be clarity on their direction. They need to field a team for next year as well so it is going to be fun to watch and see what they do. 2021 was a very tough year in a lot of ways but there are things to point at as a success too. Hopefully, they find more success in the offseason than they did in the regular season.