After 2017, the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros felt as if they were walking the same path to greatness. Both teams had been stuck as the perennial losers of the league for years despite having powerful rosters and both had just come out of a lengthy period of extreme losing.
Both featured a new core of homegrown stars looking to do what, for the Cubs, hadn’t been achieved since 1908 and, for the Astros, had never been accomplished. Both cores augmented themselves with veterans like Jon Lester, Justin Verlander, David Ross, Brian McCann, Dexter Fowler and Josh Reddick to guide and support young studs like Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa.