It’s hard to look back at the Chicago Cubs 2018 roster without feeling a weird mix of frustration and "what if."
Honestly, 2018 was supposed to be the year they took it all back. They won 95 games. That’s a lot of baseball games to win in a single season. Most teams would kill for a 95-win campaign, yet for the North Siders, it felt like pulling teeth for six straight months. By the time they hit that Wild Card game against the Rockies, the gas tank wasn't just empty—it was bone dry.
If you were watching that season, you remember the grind. It wasn’t the breezy, "Try Not to Suck" vibe of 2016. It was a roster caught between being a juggernaut and a group of guys who just couldn't find their rhythm at the plate.
The Core That We Thought Was Untouchable
The heart of the Chicago Cubs 2018 roster was still that magical core from the World Series run. You had Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Javier Báez. On paper, that is a terrifying middle of the order.
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Javy was the undisputed spark plug that year. He finished second in the MVP voting, hitting .290 with 34 homers and a league-leading 111 RBIs. He was "El Mago" in his absolute prime, sliding into bases like he was escaping a bank heist and swinging at pitches that were basically in the dirt but somehow hitting them into the bleachers.
But then there was Kris Bryant.
KB’s 2018 was... complicated. He dealt with a nagging left shoulder injury that sapped his power. You could see it in his swing; it wasn't as violent or as fluid as his 2016 MVP form. He only played 102 games. When your best pure hitter is playing through a shoulder that basically won't let him drive the ball, the rest of the lineup feels the squeeze. Anthony Rizzo did his usual Rizzo things—hitting .283 and being the emotional anchor—but the "Bryzzo" powerhouse felt a bit out of sync.
The Pitching Staff: Workhorses and Question Marks
The rotation was supposed to be the strength. Jon Lester was still the alpha, grinding out 181 innings with an 18-6 record. Kyle Hendricks, "The Professor," kept doing his thing with a 3.44 ERA, painting corners and making hitters look foolish with 87-mph fastballs.
But then things got expensive and messy.
The Cubs went out and got Yu Darvish on a massive six-year, $126 million deal. It was the move that was supposed to replace Jake Arrieta and keep the window open forever. Instead, Darvish struggled with injuries and confidence, throwing only 40 innings that entire season. It was a disaster at the time, though we know now he eventually found his Cy Young form in Chicago later on. To fill the gap, they traded for Cole Hamels in July. Hamels was a revelation, pitching to a 2.36 ERA in 12 starts and basically keeping the season alive.
The Offense That "Broke"
Joe Maddon and Theo Epstein talked a lot about the offense "breaking" toward the end of the year. It's a weird thing to say about a 95-win team, but the numbers don't lie. They couldn't hit with runners in scoring position. They went through stretches where they looked like they’d never seen a breaking ball before.
The Chicago Cubs 2018 roster had depth, sure. You had guys like Albert Almora Jr., Ian Happ, and Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber actually had a solid year, posting a .356 OBP and 26 homers, showing he was more than just a "World Series DH" type. But the consistency wasn't there. Ben Zobrist was the outlier—the veteran pro who hit .305 and seemed to be the only one who knew how to take a professional at-bat when the pressure was on.
Then there was the catching situation. Willson Contreras was an All-Star starter, but he looked absolutely exhausted by September. He played 138 games, which is a massive load for a catcher who plays with that much intensity. By the time the playoffs rolled around, his bat had gone cold.
The Bullpen: Brandon Morrow and the Ghost of Closers Past
The bullpen was actually elite for most of the year, which people tend to forget. Pedro Strop was a warrior. Steve Cishek was an absolute rubber arm, appearing in 80 games. 80! That’s insane.
But the Brandon Morrow experiment is what haunts fans. Morrow was signed to be the lockdown closer. He was dominant for a few months, racking up 22 saves with a 1.47 ERA. And then... his body gave out. He went on the DL in July and never came back. Not just for that season, but he basically became a footnote in Cubs history due to various injuries. Without a set closer, Maddon had to mix and match, which worked until it didn't.
Why 2018 Matters More Than People Realize
People look at 2016 as the peak, but 2018 was the inflection point. It was the year the front office realized the "young hitting core" wasn't going to just naturally get better every year. Progression isn't linear.
The Cubs led the division for a huge chunk of the season. They were up by 5 games in September. But the Milwaukee Brewers went on a tear, and the Cubs stumbled. It led to Game 163—a tiebreaker for the division. The Cubs lost at Wrigley. Then they had to play the Wild Card game the very next night. They lost that too.
In 48 hours, they went from being the potential #1 seed to being out of the playoffs entirely. It was brutal.
The Supporting Cast and Mid-Season Moves
Theo Epstein was aggressive, but not every move panned out.
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- Jesse Chavez: Maybe the best under-the-radar midseason acquisition ever. He was lights out.
- Daniel Murphy: Brought in to fix the offense in August. He hit, but his defense was... well, it was Daniel Murphy defense.
- Tommy La Stella: The pinch-hitting king. He was a weapon off the bench that they eventually traded away, much to the chagrin of fans who loved his contact-first approach.
- Jason Heyward: He actually had a decent year at the plate compared to his 2016 disaster, hitting .270 and winning another Gold Glove. His defense remained the best in the business, but that contract still loomed over every conversation.
The Reality of the 2018 Stats
When you dig into the peripheral numbers of the Chicago Cubs 2018 roster, you see a team that was elite at preventing runs but mediocre at driving them in during clutch moments.
| Pitcher | ERA | Innings |
|---|---|---|
| Jon Lester | 3.32 | 181.2 |
| Kyle Hendricks | 3.44 | 199.0 |
| Cole Hamels | 2.36 (with Cubs) | 76.1 |
| Mike Montgomery | 3.99 | 124.0 |
The pitching staff held up their end of the bargain. Even Tyler Chatwood, who led the league in walks and couldn't find the strike zone if it was the size of a barn door, didn't totally tank the season because the bullpen bailed him out so often.
The issue was the lack of "slug." In 2016, they walked and homered. In 2018, they stopped walking as much and the homers became solo shots. The "Launch Angle" revolution seemed to catch up to them, or maybe they just got tired. They played 42 games in 43 days to end the season because of rainouts. Think about that. Forty-two games in forty-three days. That's not a schedule; that's a marathon in a blender.
Misconceptions About the 2018 Season
A lot of folks think the 2018 Cubs were a failure. I disagree.
You don't win 95 games by being a failure. The "failure" was the lack of urgency in the front office to address the contact-hitting issues earlier. They relied on the talent to just figure it out. But baseball is a game of adjustments, and the rest of the league adjusted to the Cubs' power hitters by feeding them a steady diet of sliders away and high heat.
Also, the idea that Joe Maddon "lost the clubhouse" in 2018 is mostly revisionist history. The players loved Joe. The friction was between Joe and the front office regarding "the process." The 2018 season was the beginning of the end for the Maddon era because the results didn't match the analytical expectations.
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Actionable Insights for Fans and Historians
If you're looking back at this roster for research or just to settle a bar bet, here are the key takeaways you need to know:
- Study the "Game 163" impact: This was the first time the NL Central was decided by a tiebreaker under this format. It changed how the Cubs approached roster depth the following year.
- Javier Báez's Peak: If you want to see what a five-tool player looks like when he's "on," watch 2018 Javy highlights. It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to magic on a dirt diamond.
- The Injury Factor: You cannot talk about this roster without mentioning Kris Bryant's shoulder. It changed the geometry of the entire lineup.
- Pitching Evolution: Look at how Cole Hamels reinvented his changeup usage during those two months in Chicago. It's a masterclass for aging lefties.
The 2018 Cubs were a great team that ran out of gas at the worst possible moment. They were the last gasp of the 2016 championship window feeling truly "wide open." After this, the trades started, the coaching staff shuffled, and the core began to slowly dissolve. It was a season of 95 wins that felt like 95 losses by the time October 3rd rolled around.