A year ago, the Cubs world was in essentially the exact same place — trying to find answers for a season that ended earlier than expected.
There was only one difference: Time.
The 2018 Cubs woke up on the morning of Oct. 22 having been out of action almost three full weeks. That's a long time in terms of decompressing, letting your body heal and evaluating what went wrong.
A year ago today, Ben Zobrist was in the midst of trying to heal his ailing wrist after a third straight trip deep into the postseason.
A year ago today, Theo Epstein was roughly 48 hours removed from his annual end-of-season eulogy.