During the playoffs I took a look at how Cubs position player value compared to the rest of the league in 2022 to get an idea of how close they were to competing in 2023. The results, well, weren’t great. From that earlier piece:
The Cubs gain 2.3 fWAR from players who were negative in 2022, however they lose 3.3 fWAR from Willson Contreras, which puts them at 14.9 total fWAR returning. Now, obviously some players might take a step forward, or a step back, but as currently constructed the Cubs would need to add approximately 20 fWAR in free agent contracts just from position players to approach the level of fWAR the top teams in the playoffs had in 2022.