With Opening Day around the corner, now is as good a time as any to start dreaming about the Cubs reclaiming their first NL Central crown since 2017. It has been a frustrating couple of years since then as the team fell from division champions to losing in the Wild Card game to missing the playoffs altogether.
One thing they haven’t failed to do is remain in the hunt late into the season. While September collapses in 2018 and ’19 prevented the Cubs from winning the division, competitive-ish baseball up to that point at least kept us thinking that they might.