The Chicago Cubs have just been an average team for the past few years with them finishing with the same 83-79 record for the past two seasons.
The Cubs will hope to finally break their playoff drought this season after not making the playoffs since 2020. However, if one wanted to be a stickler about it and 2020 not being a full season then one would have to go back to 2018 as being the last full year the Cubs didn’t make the playoffs.
The Cubs will have a riveting start to their season with having to travel over to Japan to play in the MLB Japan Series. This series will be interesting from so many angles and contain countless storylines fans should be excited about.
The Chicago Cubs vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Japan Series
The Cubs and the reigning World Series Champions the Los Angeles Dodgers will inaugurate the Major League Baseball season on March 18 in the Japan Series which will take place in the Tokyo Dome. This will be interesting from so many angles from the Cub’s perspective given this will be their first test in playing a top team in the National League.
Even though this will be a quick two-game set at the start of the season, this series will have a lot of elements to watch for that could give insight into how the Cubs fair this season.
Kyle Tucker’s first impression of the Cubs
Going into the series the first note to mention will be how newly acquired outfield Kyle Tucker shows in his first two games as a Cub. It will be important to see how his lower half is holding up after missing half of last season with a right shin fracture.
Here are some of Kyle Tucker’s numbers from his appearances on Opening Day for the past four seasons per ESPN:
2024: 2-3, 4 RBI, 2 HRs, 1 walk, .350/.435/.700 for an OPS OF 1.135
2023: 0-2 with 2 walks .500 OBP
2022: 0-3
2021: 0-3 with 1 RBI and 1 run
Hopefully, the Cubs will get the 2024 Opening Day Tucker rather than the three other seasons of Opening Day Kyle Tucker.
Possibly seeing Matt Shaw at third base.
The biggest question coming out of spring training will be who the Cubs will have as their starter at their base come Opening Day. The Cubs were rumored to be in discussions with free agent third baseman Alex Bregman on possibly taking a short-term deal, President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer has indicated that the battle for third will be handled internally. That means that top prospect Matt Shaw has all the faith in the world in the organization to take the job and run with it. If he can be successful, this spring the chances of him making the trip over to Japan with the Cubs are almost guaranteed.
A well-deserved homecoming
The Cubs and the Dodgers both have a few players who are native to Japan and will be making a homecoming trip once the series starts. The series will feature the great players in baseball Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Imanaga, and Seiya Suzuki, and the Dodger’s new signee Roki Sasaki. Fans should get a ton of enjoyment seeing all the names come back home who they use to root for.
The biggest storyline of them all: the Opening Day pitching matchup
It is almost a given that the Cubs will send out left-hander and the Ace of their staff Shota Imanaga to be their Opening Day starter after going 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA and finishing in the top five for both the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards last season. For the Dodgers, they could either turn to Yamamoto, Sasaki, or Blake Snell to start for them on Opening Day.
It will be interesting to watch whenever Sasaki pitches to 1. see how well he does against major league hitters and 2. if the Cubs can exact any type of ‘revenge‘ for losing out to him after it seemed like he would be a Dodger all along. The Cubs were heavily in on Sasaki who would’ve vastly upgraded the Cubs starting rotation given then needed to add another top-of-the-line righty to try and break up Imanaga and Steele in the rotation.
From all standpoints, this quick two-game jaunt will be a fun one for Cubs fans to witness if they can get up early in the morning. If the Cubs can either split or possibly sweep both games, then that could potentially start the Cubs on the right foot needed to finally end that playoff drought.
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