The Chicago Cubs’ final regular-season homestand should be devoid of unnecessary drama.
With a wild-card berth having been clinched in Pittsburgh and the Cubs closing in on home-field advantage in the wild-card series, it should be a chance for manager Craig Counsell to rest up the guys who need the most rest and focus on getting everyone ready for the start of the postseason on Sept. 30, preferably at Wrigley Field.
But doing things the easy way has never been the Cubs Way, especially in a season like 2025, where they once held a 6 1/2 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers, who clinched the National League Central on Sunday.
So expect the unexpected this week at Wrigley, beginning Tuesday night with the start of a three-game series against the fading New York Mets — the team your boomer grandfather has hated since 1969 for reasons that still can’t be discussed in polite company.
Winning the series would not only help the Cubs’ own cause toward playing the first playoff round at home, it could also help knock the Mets out of the postseason altogether. No, it wouldn’t make up for ’69, but the ’25 teams could make some Cubs fans happy in their old age.
Like the Cincinnati Reds, who swept the Cubs in a four-game series to take possession of the final National League wild-card spot, the Mets are fighting for their playoff life and hoping to avoid going down as the most expensive flop in baseball history. With a $340 million payroll and so little to show for it, Mets owner Steve Cohen is vying with the owners of Cracker Barrel for executing the biggest financial fiasco of 2025.
The Mets are 35-52 over their last 87 games, and tied for the third and final wild-card spot, but have to finish a game ahead of Cincinnati because the Reds own the tiebreaker. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who sold off pieces at the trade deadline, are only one game back of the Mets and also hold the tiebreaker over them.
“Amazin!,” former Mets manager Casey Stengel would say.
The Cubs have their own problems, too, and now would be a good time to snap out of their Cincy hangover, or else risk playing the wild-card series on the road in San Diego.
Chicago Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki, right, is tagged out at home plate by Cincinnati Reds catcher Jose Trevino during the first inning on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
But if the Cubs feel a sense of urgency, it was difficult to detect by their play in Cincinnati. They simply look exhausted from a season where they spent four months in first place and saw the Brewers clinch the division with a week left.
“Playing teams now that are fighting for their lives, that’s what every game in the playoffs looks like, so it’s just understanding that’s the level we have to be at intensity-wise,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said in Cincinnati. “And I think it’s probably good to see right now, play these close games and then understand that’s where we have to be at mentally and intensity-level wise because the playoffs only turn it up even more.
“Every pitch has so much more behind it. So, yeah, this was probably in the long run a good thing if we all look at it the right way and take from it what we all need. I think it could be a positive.”
That’s the only way the Cubs can look at it. Angst-ridden Cubs’ fans, on the other hand, can continue to watch with one hand over their eyes.
Rookie Cade Horton, who could be the Game 1 starter in the postseason, faces David Peterson in Tuesday night’s opener.
Counsell presumably knows his wild-card series rotation plans, but he’ll no doubt keep them under wraps until forced to make an announcement. Horton’s major-league-leading 0.93 ERA in the second half makes him the obvious choice, despite his inexperience, because Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd have been inconsistent of late. Imanaga has a 4.06 second-half ERA, while Boyd’s ERA since the break is at 4.74. It’s not a good time to be searching for answers.
The Cubs’ offense, meanwhile, is 27th in runs scored (238) in the second half, and 22nd in OPS (.703). That’s after finishing second in runs (518) in the first half, and fourth in OPS (.771). It’s been a collective slump, but three key players are question marks with the postseason in sight.
Kyle Tucker’s calf injury doesn’t seem to be improving, though he’s expected to be at Wrigley on Tuesday for an update, while big drop-offs by Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki have made the Cubs’ lineup look pedestrian. If those three can’t produce at a level close to their first-half production, the Cubs’ offense won’t scare opposing pitchers.
Adding to the dilemma was the Cubs’ decision to allow Matt Shaw to attend Sunday’s memorial of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Ariz., and miss the final game of the Reds series. The Cubs lost 1-0 without Shaw, as no player was available to pinch run in the ninth for Moisés Ballesteros, who represented the tying run.
Fans heatedly debated the Cubs’ decision to let Shaw leave the team on the internet, adding their own political views to the cacophony of noise and putting Shaw in the middle.
Shaw might not have wanted to be thrown into the culture wars by grieving for a friend, but it’s naive to believe his absence would go unnoticed, or that Cubs fans would just shrug their shoulders at the news of a key player missing an important late-season game to attend a memorial that would amplify the MAGA message.
But it’s too late to turn back now. How it will affect Shaw’s mindset in the final week and the postseason is anyone’s guess.
A strong finish by the Cubs against the Mets and St. Louis Cardinals could make all their worries disappear and give everyone a chance to breathe before the start of the postseason.
Or the Cubs could do this the hard way.
Which one will it be?