I have concluded which team will grab the second wild card spot in the National League: it’s the Chicago Cubs’ JV team. I came to this conclusion last week after watching Chicago roll playoff-quality opponents with its number four starter and two key relievers on the disabled list, and seeing manager Joe Maddon regularly give days off to his starting position players while mixing in bench players and recent call-ups from Triple A Iowa and fiddling with a six-man rotation.
The Cubs are insanely deep. They have no obvious and potentially fatal flaws. They have the best defense in baseball in a quarter of a century.