The Chicago Cubs lost the National League Championship Series (NLCS)  4-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won Game 5 with an 11-1 score with Enrique Hernandez having three home runs, including a grand slam. The Cubs finished the season with a 92-70 record, winning the National League (NL) Central.

These Cubs weren’t the same as the 2016 World Series Champions.  They didn’t have nearly the same bullpen as last year’s team. They lost Aroldis Chapman, one of the best closers in the game. Hector Rondon was left off of the NLDS vs. the Washington Nationals because he wasn’t having a great season. They had to leave Justin Wilson off the NLCS roster, a guy who they traded for to help the team in October.

The starting pitching was a huge strength. Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, and Jose Quintana, who they traded for from the Chicago White Sox, were doing phenomenal throughout the whole season. In the NLDS vs. the Nationals Kyle Hendricks pitched a great first game, going 7 innings letting up zero runs.

In Game 2, Jon Lester pitched 6 innings only letting up 1 run. The problem was when Arrieta, Lester, Quintana, and Hendricks got out of the game; the bullpen had trouble keeping the game close. But if the starters can go a long time, they have one of the best closers in the game in Wade Davis.

Throughout the postseason the Cubs were not hitting the ball well. The 2016 NL MVP Kris Bryant hit an appalling .200 with 14 strikeouts in 10 games. In the regular season, he hit .295 with 29 homers and 73 RBI. He just wasn’t able to have those same numbers in the postseason. The NL MVP did, however, hit a home run to break out of the slump in Game 5.

Javier Baez had a big Game 4 with 2 home runs, but before that he was hitting 0-23 in his last 23 postseason at-bats before those two home runs.

The Cubs are a young team, but many players may test the free agent market such as Jake Arrieta, John Lackey, and Wade Davis. Those are 3 important players for the Cubs, and they’re going to want a lot of money. The 2018 Cubs should be in the same position they were this year: chasing the pennant.