10. The Chicago Cubs will repeat as champions
For the first time since 1909, the Cubs enter a season as World Series champions.
The moment.#WorldSeries pres. by @TMobile pic.twitter.com/CsrG5yvfII
— MLB (@MLB) November 3, 2016
We don’t expect them to wait that long again.
Chicago again has baseball’s best roster. The Cubs’ main problem in 2016 was finding playing time for all of their stars and elite prospects. With the return of Kyle Schwarber, that “problem” isn’t going away any time soon.
The loss of Aroldis Chapman will hurt the bullpen, but that was largely offset by the addition of Wade Davis. In fact, with the acquisitions of Davis and Koji Uehara and the returning Mike Montgomery, the Cubs employ the man who’s thrown the last pitch in three of the last four World Series. So, Chicago is well equipped for pressure packed situations.
No team has repeated as World Series champ since the 1998-2000 Yankees. No National League team has done so since the 1975-1976 Cincinnati Reds. But the Cubs are in better position than the Red Sox and Giants were in after their breakthroughs in 2004 and 2010, respectively. Both of those teams won two more World Series in relatively short order.
The biggest real problem for Chicago in 2016 was getting over a long standing barrier. Now that’s no longer an issue. The Cubs know that they can win. Expect to see Chicago end 2017 the same way it ended 2016, on top of the MLB world.