This is Not a Rebuild

This podcast will never die. We return triumphantly, with a long and loving preview of the 2026 Chicago Cubs season. Enjoy!

So, the Cubs didn't sign Dylan Cease. And it sure looks like they won't re-sign Kyle Tucker. Still, as the guys reconvene for the first time since the end of September, it's only fair to note: Jed Hoyer actually does something pretty interesting every winter. We talk about that, and about who's on the top of our wishlists, as the Winter Meetings get set to begin.

We still exist! The pod went on a season-long hiatus, but on the eve of the Cubs' first meaningful playoff games since 2017, we're back with a vengeance, baby. Salacious Cade Horton gossip, tons and tons of thoughts on the season just past, and the heat of the hatred between Craig Counsell and Oli Marmol color the discussion—but we also provide a substantial, in-depth preview of the 2025 N...

The gang discusses the tenuous Chicago Cubs offseason, the hopes and fears that fit within it, and the passing of Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker. Then things get weird.

Three-legged, the gang does their best to talk Cubs during a lull in the offseason. With the team awash in options for upgrading the pitching staff, we discuss the discomfort of knowing they'll do something fairly big, but not being able to evaluate their smaller moves without the context of the bigger one still in the offing. Then, we throw it way back for the Random Cub of the Week, start to win...

The gang convenes for a pre-holiday podcast to discuss the Cody Bellinger trade, the ways the Cubs might spend the money they saved by sending him to the Yankees, and what this roster still needs most. They also gab about the big news of the week, whereby Sammy Sosa has been re-enfolded into the community of Cubdom—if only a little half-heartedly, and under some external pressures.

The gang convenes for a semi-emergency pod, to talk about the very exciting Kyle Tucker trade; why the partner deal sending out Cody Bellinger is necessary and forthcoming, but why it has not already happened; the next big move the team might make this week; and then OMG YOU HAVE TO HEAR THE END WHERE WE TALK ABOUT GAGE WORKMAN!

The gang convenes to discuss the MLB Winter Meetings, and all the huge doings and comings and goings and movings and shakings and LOL you know the real state of things. Discussed closely herein, though, are the Juan Soto deal with the Mets; the Cubs' involvement in trade negotiations for Garrett Crochet and Kyle Tucker; and the complicated path the team has chosen over the simple but expensive opt...

The gang discusses the arrival of Eli Morgan and Matt Thaiss, the departure of Patrick Wisdom and Trey WIngenter, how the Cubs seem to be setting themselves up for the offseason, whether they would really trade Cody Bellinger, and why the Bears have to Bears so hard all the time. PLUS! A Random Cub of the Week!

The guys welcome special World Series correspondent Sorkin Trueblood for a guest appearance to open the podcast, then pivot into a lengthy discussion of the many good options available to the Cubs this winter—and the ones they seem to have already foreclosed upon. Included: Was Anthony Rizzo or Gerrit Cole more to blame for the key slip in the pivotal sequence of Game 5? Why on Earth are the Cubs...

The gang breaks down the relentless inconsistency of the Cubs on the field, and the maddeningly obvious, unsolvable problem they face off the field: an ownership group that refuses to spend the missing $60 million that would make this team more competitive while they try to build up from within. They go over all kinds of options for the Cubs in free agency and elsewhere going into the winter, and...

The gang reconvenes after an accidental layoff to concelebrate the Cubs' improbable August resurgence. They discuss the apparent breakouts of both Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya, why the starting rotation is simultaneously sturdy and suspect, the prospects who might come up to join the team in September, and just what is--and isn't--still possible for this team.

This one is a little more wacky than the title suggests, but we dove deep on the subject of the Cubs' decisions at the trade deadline. -The Morel-Paredes trade with the Rays -Acquiring Nate Pearson for the bullpen (or maybe the rotation?) in 2025 and beyond -Did they get enough for Mark Leiter? -Whom they tried to get at the deadline -Whom they might target this winter Enjoy!

In a de facto trade deadline preview episode, Matthew Trueblood, DJ Fochs, Todd Trueblood, and Tom Nurse kick around the many options facing the Cubs and the team's seeming lack of a decisive direction. Within: -What we all really want this team to be, and the painful moves that might be required to get there -What a multi-step move that takes Justin Steele, Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ and/or Seiya...

The Cubs are sellers. The 2024 MLB trade deadline is just four weeks away, so Jed Hoyer had better get crackin'. In the latest TINAR, the gang laments the underachievement that has brought the team to this point, muses about ways they might restructure the roster, tries to remember the last Cubs team this frustrating, and wrestles with whether or not the job of rebuilding them again should be...

The gang convenes to discuss the Cubs in crisis--although, perhaps, just as the crisis ends? (Time will tell.) Subjects covered include: the rejuvenation of Kyle Hendricks, the unfathomable badness of the bullpen, whether there really is something that makes winning harder for the Cubs, when they're all going to start hitting, why Dansby Swanson's contract is a problem, and the marvelous,...

Three-fourths of the gang, one full hour! Not a lot of Cubs sunshine to bask in, but the group does break down: -What Craig Counsell has to do better -Why the conversations about this team's struggles feel so familiar, and so frustrating -Christopher Morel being good (we think?) but weird (for sure) And more! Join us.

As usual, the guys range far and wide, but their reliable central topic remains the Cubs, and hey, the Cubs remain interesting! Good, even! We talk a lot about Mike Tauchman, PCA, and the relentlessness of the injury issues the Cubs have had to battle so far this season, as well as why NO ONE SHOULD PAY FOR BILLIONAIRES' NEW STADIA, the trials and travails of the Angels and Cardinals, and chic...

Distractions lurk around every corner, but the gang talks about the Cubs surviving a tough early schedule to climb to the top of the NL Central at the end of April. They discuss Christopher Morel, Ian Happ, the injured Cubs on the mend, and how the team has outperformed expectations despite so much adversity. They also get silly, as usual.

In the latest episode of the very best and most focused Chicago Cubs podcast on the internet, the guys discuss the White Sox's struggles, the Cardinals' struggles, the Bears' stupid roof, and society's comfort with discomfort. Eventually, they also get around to the Chicago Cubs, breaking down Kyle Hendricks being placed on the injured list; the candidates to replace him in the rot...

Needing to kill time before the release of The Tortured Poets Department, the gang gathers to throw an impromptu funeral for Kyle Hendricks's command, sift through starting pitching options including and beyond him, taxonomize the vibes of Cubs series against various opponents over time, and share special secret data on Michael Busch's homers.

The guys gather to discuss an interesting but maddening series in San Diego, the Cubs' uneven but enjoyable early season returns, and then a reeling array of tangential topics, including Ippei Mizuhara's defrauding of Shohei Ohtani; the injury epidemic among MLB pitchers; Stephen Strasburg's retirement; and OJ Simpson.

This is the Big One. The gang gives a long list of predictions, including how many games the Cubs will win, who will lead the way in various categories, and who will win the 2024 World Series. It's going to be a fun season, so jump aboard.

The gang has survived yet another existential threat to the podcast (i.e., sustained technical issues), and the Chicago Cubs talk rolls on. This return episode includes discussion of: -The David Bote predicament -What the Cubs' catching situation looks like -Injury updates on Ian Happ and Jameson Taillon -A LOT of Christopher Morel at third base debate -Love for newcomers Michael Busch and Sho...

The gang talks about Bobby Witt's extension and Corbin Burnes being traded to the Orioles, and about how none of that is directly about the Cubs but we wish something that is directly about the Cubs would happen already. This is a fun one, thanks absolutely not at all to the Cubs.