Nothing brings joy to baseball fans like the start of spring training, when the possibilities are endless and opening day is suddenly within view.
The players are all “hungry,” management talks about “unfinished business,” and the idea of a “spring phenom” lurks in every camp from Florida to Arizona. The names change over the years, but the cliches remain the same. That’s why you always hear that hope springs eternal in February, but seldom hear that hope fades away come June.
The Cubs and White Sox are off and running, with differing expectations but the same basic plan of selling hope to fans starving for bigger and (relatively) better things in 2026.
I’ll be reporting late to Arizona this spring due to load-management issues after 30 spring trainings under my belt but staying in close contact with Tribune beat writers Megan Montermurro and LaMond Pope and observing the goings on from afar.
We’re coming off one of the greatest World Series in history and heading into a season that could be the last one for a while, thanks to a likely lockout in December. The final straw, many experts have theorized, was the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers’ signing of former Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million deal.
The rich get richer. PECOTA projects the Dodgers to win 104 games, while Fangraphs has their payroll at an astonishing $396 million. Tucker’s annual average salary of $60 million is $20 million higher than Aaron Judge’s AAV of $40 million from the New York Yankees star’s nine-year, $360 million deal signed in 2022. By today’s standards, Judge is already severely underpaid.
“It’s crazy, the numbers,” said former Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, now a pregame analyst for NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”
“But you know what? The game is thriving and the owners have a lot of money, right? They keep paying them because they keep making money. It’s really good to see in the game. Whenever anyone wants to say anything about (players) making too much money, it’s not their money, so keep paying these guys.”
Some random thoughts on the rites of spring.
White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery is introduced during SoxFest Live at the Ramova Theatre on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Bridgeport. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery was sent down to minor-league camp early last spring and didn’t get much of a chance to make the team. But he managed to prove his doubters wrong after being called up on the Fourth of July and enters 2026 as the new face of the White Sox. It’s a role he does not mind playing.
“As a kid, that’s what you always want,” Montgomery told me at SoxFest. “You want to be a guy that the fans look at and when you think of a team, they think of that person. It just shows who you are not just as a player, but as a person. So I’m happy to be a part of that. I don’t mind talking to people. The media is just giving insight into what the fans want to know. That’s awesome.”
Craig Counsell is already in midseason form. The Cubs manager was asked by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers whether Daniel Palencia would be the closer if the season were to begin tomorrow. “Yes,” he replied, then paused and jokingly added: “Nice scoop, Jesse.”
It was a legitimate question since Palencia was not used as the closer in the playoffs, pitching in the sixth inning or earlier in all six appearances after missing most of September with a right shoulder strain. If Palencia, who will pitch for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, doesn’t have a good spring, Counsell will have to answer that question again. Stay tuned.
Former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and his wife, Diana, speak after the installation of the Norman Rockwell painting “The Dugout” on Feb. 10, 2026, at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Rauners gifted it to the museum after hanging it in their home for the past 19 years. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Art Institute of Chicago garnered a lot of publicity Tuesday for installing Norman Rockwell’s “The Dugout,” a 1948 illustration of slumping players and manager Charlie Grimm in the Cubs dugout and heckling Boston Braves fans behind them. No offense to Rockwell or his many fans, but this would be like chef Grant Achatz adding a Big Mac to the menu at Alinea.
It’s a kitschy piece of Americana, but not a great work of art befitting a museum with the reputation of the Art Institute. A better venue for “The Dugout” would be at Wrigley Field, where Cubs fans could take selfies in front of it.
My annual plea to baseball: Bring back pitchers running in the outfield during spring training games. Modern spring training facilities have all but made this classic workout obsolete, in which a pitcher would leave the game and return to jog in the outfield during play.
Why would anyone work out on the field now when they have so many treadmills and exercise bikes in their facilities? It’s the ambience, stupid. The sight of a player running in the outfield during a game is soothing to fans and reminds us the exhibition game is just a meaningless marketing tool to get everyone excited for the upcoming season. Some things never get old.
New third baseman Alex Bregman attends a discussion during the Cubs Convention on Jan. 17, 2026, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
The addition of free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, who signed a five-year, $175 million deal, has made the Cubs prohibitive division favorites.
“Bregman’s expectation of himself is going to elevate everyone around him,” Rizzo said. “He’s played a lot of meaningful baseball games and knows what it takes to win. They got the taste last year. Wrigley looked like it was absolutely electric. I’d imagine coming into (Wrigley) now, the Cubs are going to have to be ready for everyone’s best stuff, because Wrigley is going to be elevated and the visiting teams are going to be elevated as well.”
PECOTA pegs the Cubs for 90 wins and a National League Central title, while the Milwaukee Brewers sink to 80 wins and second place. This plays right into the Brewers’ hands and feeds into their annual narrative of being disrespected.
White Sox infielder Munetaka Murakami takes a swing during batting practice at spring training Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PECOTA also projects the Sox to win 69 games and finish last again in the American League Central, with the Kansas City Royals shockingly winning the division over the Detroit Tigers. Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami has given Sox fans faith that the rebuild will be put on fast-forward.
New Sox starter Anthony Kay, who faced Murakami in Japan, gave a scouting report: “The numbers say he’s going to hit a lot of homers,” he said. “He didn’t have any problem with the velocity I had, and I was throwing 98 (mph) there. I don’t understand why he can’t have a lot of success over here.”
It’s a shame Marquee Sports Network is televising only 11 of the Cubs’ Cactus League games after originally boasting of its plan to cover the team 365 days a year. “Our dedicated ‘Cubs-centric’ network will carry all available Cubs games and feature uncompromising, in-depth and behind-the-scenes coverage,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said in a 2019 press release.
Marquee moved to the Xfinity Ultimate TV tier after the 2025 season, which adds $20 to your cable bill, on top of the $20.25 regional sports network fee Comcast already charged Chicago-area subscribers. The least Marquee could do is not reduce the content.
This spring marks the 30th anniversary of Tony Phillips’s 48-hour retirement from the White Sox. Phillips left camp in Sarasota, Fla., because he was in the wrong “frame of mind” and had to be convinced by old friends Dusty Baker and Dave Stewart to return.
“I wouldn’t call it a comeback,” Phillips told me upon his return. “Actually what really happened is I retired and went home, and my wife said, ‘No, no.’”