The provocative headline “Did The Cubs Miss Their Chance To Be A Dynasty?” appeared recently on the FiveThirtyEight website.
It got you to click, right? It did for me, and as is the case for FiveThirtyEight, their analysis is strictly by the numbers, and reaches this conclusion:
How is it possible that the Cubs went from dynasty in the making in 2016 to a team struggling to stay atop its own division in less than three years? The answer lies in part with the team’s declining core and team president Theo Epstein’s inability to supplement it with effective reinforcements from the outside — particularly when it comes to pitching.