The Chicago Cubs have succeeded in spite of everything

The Chicago Cubs have taken blow after blow this season. They’ve taken so many gut punches that nobody would’ve blamed them if they just tossed in the towel on an ill-fated 2026 in hopes of a better 2027.

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It’s hard to imagine a bigger blow than losing four starters from your rotation, your closer, and a handful of relievers from your bullpen. That’s what the Cubs have suffered through in this first half of 2026.

Yet, the team is headed into the other side of the All-Star break twelve games above .500 and in the top NL Wild Card spot.

Seriously—given all the losses and the fact that the pitching staff is currently manned by emergency fill-ins and castoffs from other teams—this shouldn’t be happening.

Winning against the odds

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Aldo Soto, blogger at Sports Mockery, recently pointed this out in a Tweet which sums things up pretty nicely:

The Cubs at the All-Star break:
23rd in rotation ERA
16th in bullpen ERA
6th fewest quality starts
4th most blown saves

Meanwhile, over 35 games, they had baseball’s 3rd-worst offense.

And yet they have the 5th best record in MLB.”

Throwing in the fact that even the offense has been spotty and inconsistent is important.

All of this begs the question of how Chicago is doing this.

To be honest, the biggest factor motoring this Cubs team seems to be gumption and true grit. To the credit of Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, this team has been put together with character in mind—and it shows.

True Grit

“I’m proud of how hard it was for us and how much adversity was thrown our way,” Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong told reporters prior to the All-Star break. “For how beat up we were, for how many guys have cycled through here…this was a friggin’ team effort, this first half.”

This truly has been a no-quit squad, as their 10 walk-off wins this season proves. But even earlier in the year, Chicago’s moxie was plainly evident.

“I never saw our guys waver or falter today,” pitcher Jameson Taillon told media after a crazy come-from-behind victory back in April. “It would have been easy going down 5-0 and just kind of be like ‘welp, let’s go on the road we got swept’, it was just a really cool vibe and energy today where I thought everyone was picking each other up, guys passing the baton to each other as the game went.”

Under manager Craig Counsell, the team has adopted a next-man-up mindset in dealing with setbacks and injuries. When one Cub falls, another one steps up to fill the gap. And they’ve been doing this all year.

There’s also an elite defense helping the team along, of course, and enough offense to always be dangerous. Plus, Crow-Armstrong has beeen almost obscene in his greatness, especially the last two months or so.

But resiliency is the defining characteristic of this team.

Hopefully, the front office can add some pitching depth by the August 3 trade deadline to provide some support for the push to the postseason.

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