MESA, Ariz. — Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon has noticed a different feeling around the team’s spring-training complex as he and his teammates prepare for the 2026 season.
“I know it’s a spring-training cliche,” Taillon said Wednesday, the first official workout day for pitchers and catchers. “But guys show up, and it doesn’t seem as rah-rah exciting. It seems more like, ‘Let’s get to work’ exciting.”
Maybe some of the change in atmosphere could be attributed to the sunshine or his early ramp-up for the World Baseball Classic or the additions to the spring-training facilities, including an expansion of the main building and a new stand-alone hitting and pitching lab.
But Taillon wasn’t the only one who tied that specific kind of excitement to the way 2025 ended for the Cubs. They snapped a four-year playoff drought and forced a Game 5 in the National League Division -Series against the Brewers, only to fall short.
“So many of the guys were here last year, and I think they feel like we had a really good season but there’s unfinished business,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “And I think that in a lot of ways, that’s the best kind of spring training, when there’s a hunger.”
The Cubs had to remake their bullpen this offseason and lost right fielder Kyle Tucker to free agency. Otherwise, the roster remained largely intact. The Cubs’ additions, including the signing of veteran third baseman Alex Bregman and a trade for starting pitcher Edward Cabrera, raised their ceiling — and outside expectations.
PECOTA Projections have the Cubs as the runaway favorites to win the NL Central, although the Brewers’ habit of far exceeding projections should be noted.
“Everybody in this industry wants expectations,” manager Craig Counsell said. “You work hard to get expectations. You work really hard to build a roster that has expectations, work really hard to get on a team that has expectations.”
What exactly are the expectations internally?
For left-hander Matthew Boyd, that’s an easy question. The answer hasn’t changed since last year: win the World Series.
“We came up short,” Boyd said. “It was a lot of fun. It was awesome. We’re grateful for it. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. But ultimately, we didn’t really go where we wanted to go. It doesn’t mean it was a failure, it just means we didn’t get there yet. So our goal is to do it this year, and we’ve got the right guys to do it.”
Even if the Cubs snatch the division title from the Brewers, who have won it the last three years, they’ll have to get through the Dodgers to reach the World Series. The back-to-back champions continued to strengthen their roster this offseason, notably adding Tucker and closer Edwin Diaz, in pursuit of a three-peat.
Despite the Cubs’ improvements, their path to a World Series victory has some formidable roadblocks. But their postseason aspirations are more solid now, in contrast to the years after the 2021 teardown when their stated goal to “compete” felt nebulous and purposely broad.
They saw their NLDS exit as a disappointment, and anything but a deeper postseason run this year would be just as disheartening.
“It’s cool to return so many guys,” Taillon said. “We know where we were last year and know how bad that hurt. And it’s also exciting to add new guys with playoff history, new guys who come here and now expect to win.
“This is not a place now where guys are coming to necessarily just hope they can steal some playing time. We have a good reputation on the coaching side and the development side, but I also think guys come here now expecting to win, which is a cool shift to see and feel.”
The Cubs held their first official spring-training workout for pitchers and catchers Wednesday.
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