CHICAGO — It all comes down to this for the Cubs.

After a 162-game schedule, their season hinges on a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series against a formidable foe in the San Diego Padres.

In such a short series, each game — and each moment — is heightened.

“If you look at the history of the baseball playoffs, people step up,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And there’s people you don’t think are going to be the heroes are the heroes afterwards. That’s the great part about baseball.

“Experience, no experience — it’s going out there and getting the job done, and letting the playoffs kind of take you to a level maybe you didn’t think you had. And that happens very often in the playoffs.”

If the Cubs are going to make a deep run in October — or even potentially take home their second World Series trophy in the past decade — they are going to need some heroes to emerge from anywhere on the roster.

Here are the five biggest X-factors for the Cubs in the playoffs:

Injured stars

Let’s start with the team’s best players — and the biggest question marks.

Cade Horton was trending toward a Game 1 start with a stellar second half. He has gone 8-1 with a sparkling 1.03 ERA and 0.78 WHIP in 12 starts since the All-Star Break, emerging as the Cubs’ clear ace.

But the 24-year-old was removed from Tuesday night’s game with back tightness that was later revealed to be a rib injury. His status for the wild-card series is currently unknown, but the Cubs are obviously hopeful they will have the dynamic rookie.

“Right now, Cade is a ‘go’.”

Craig Counsell said Cade Horton is “on track still” as the Cubs get more information on his injury. pic.twitter.com/MPK4eR4O8M

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) September 25, 2025

If Horton is able to go Game 1 against the Padres and is fully healthy (or close to it), the Cubs are in a great spot. But if Horton starts one of the wild-card games and struggles or has to come out earlier than expected due to the injury, it may doom them in such a short series.

And if Horton can’t pitch, who do the Cubs turn to? Matthew Boyd had a solid end to his season Wednesday against the Mets, but he had hit a bit of a rough patch before that outing. And Shota Imanaga‘s struggles with the longball of late have made him a question mark as well.

Kyle Tucker was arguably the best player on the team in the first half — a legitimate star who was emerging as an MVP candidate.

But then he slumped for two months after a fracture in his hand, and just when he started to look like himself again at the plate, a calf injury popped up.

Tucker has now missed almost all of September, but is expected to make his return to the lineup Friday.

Will he be healthy enough to play in the wild-card series (or beyond, if the Cubs make it that far)? If he is in the lineup, will he be able to play right field or will he be relegated to only DH duty? And what type of production will he be able to provide?

These are all questions without answers right now. But with Tucker’s immense potential, he very well may be the team’s single-most important player entering the postseason.

Matthew Boyd

We already ran through the major questions surrounding Horton’s status for the wild-card series.

But even if the rookie right-hander is able to pitch, the Cubs will need to rely on one of their veteran lefties for a pivotal outing.

Would Boyd start a Game 2, where the Cubs would be looking to either sweep or extend the series?

The 34-year-old is not without his own question marks entering October.

“Being able to give these fans October baseball, that’s going to be real special.”

PCA cannot wait for the playoffs at Wrigley Field 🤩 pic.twitter.com/RM4awlCAH3

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) September 25, 2025

Boyd was named to the All-Star team for the first time in his career and carried a 2.46 ERA after his start on Aug. 14. But since then, he has a 6.08 ERA over his final seven outings.

Was it just a blip? Or were the struggles the result of Boyd running into a bit of a wall?

He finished the year with 179.2 innings — far and away his highest workload in the big leagues in a half-decade. He has only topped that total once in his career — in 2019.

In fact, Boyd has thrown just 202.2 MLB innings over his last four seasons combined as he has battled injuries.

He was able to right the ship with a strong outing Wednesday to close out his regular season, but overall he is not entering the playoffs on a high note.

The Cubs have worked the schedule so Boyd would have extra rest before any start in the wild-card series — whether that comes in Game 2 or if he has to be pushed up to Game 1 if Horton is sidelined.

Boyd has been a major reason why the Cubs are even in the playoffs, and the team’s postseason hopes may ultimately fall on his shoulders, too.

Pete Crow-Armstrong

Plain and simple: Crow-Armstrong is the most dynamic player on the Cubs roster.

Entering play Friday, he is a homer away from becoming only the second person in franchise history to put together a 30-30 season. He will almost assuredly win a Gold Glove in the offseason and very well may take home the Platinum Glove. He is one of the fastest players in the league and can wreak havoc on the opposing team. He was a bonafide MVP candidate through the first half of the season — right up there with Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

But Crow-Armstrong’s production is also volatile. While he can help the team win in so many different ways, he could also just as easily fall into the same slump that has plagued him since the All-Star Break (.207 AVG, .595 OPS).

If he hit three homers and collected seven hits in the best-of-three wild-card series, nobody would be surprised. But we haven’t seen one of those hot stretches from Crow-Armstrong in several months now.

Moisés Ballesteros

The DH has clearly hit his way onto the Cubs’ postseason roster with a strong showing over the last few weeks.

Ballesteros was called up when Tucker went to the IL on Sept. 9 and during his third stint in the majors, the 21-year-old looks a lot more like the player who emerged as one of the organization’s top prospects.

While serving as the team’s DH against right-handed pitchers, Ballesteros has hit .314/.429/.571 in 42 plate appearances this month. That has earned him at least a pinch-hitting role in the postseason — but there’s the case that he should be starting against righties in the playoffs as well.

How the Cubs deploy Ballesteros in the postseason will be a fascinating storyline over the next few days, but would anybody be surprised if he came up with some big hits in October?

Michael Soroka

Soroka was the team’s biggest addition at the trade deadline, but the former first-round pick was injured after only two innings during his Cubs debut.

He missed nearly a month-and-a-half and since returning, has pitched out of the bullpen.

Soroka is capable of multi-inning stints or one-inning bursts and he has had success as an X-factor out of the bullpen before. In 16 games as a reliever last year with the White Sox, Soroka had a 2.75 ERA and struck out a whopping 60 batters in 35 innings.

The 28-year-old righty has a 1.17 ERA and 1.17 WHIP during his first five outings with the Cubs, though he has walked five batters in 7.2 innings.

He is one of the pitchers flying under the radar on this Cubs staff, but he very well could come in during some big spots and pick up huge outs.