2025 Chicago Cubs

2025 Chicago Cubs / Franchise: Chicago Cubs / BR Team Page

Record: 92-70, Finished 2nd in NL Central Division (2025 NL) Wild Card

Managed by Craig Counsell

Coaches: Quintin Berry, Juan Cabreja, Ryan Flaherty, Tommy Hottovy, Casey Jacobson, Jose Javier, Dustin Kelly, John Mallee, Jonathan Mota, Alex Smith and Mark Strittmatter

Ballpark: Wrigley Field

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2025 Chicago Cubs opened their season by facing the Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Series champions, in a two-game series played at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The Cubs were the home team for the two games, but the Dodgers had a lot more fans, due to the presence on their roster of three Japanese superstars, led by Shohei Ohtani, but also featuring their starting pitchers in the two games, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. The Cubs had two Japanese players of their own in P Shota Imanaga and OF Seiya Suzuki, and Imanaga faced off against Yamamoto in a historic match-up in the season's first game. He pitched well, but the Cubs ended up losing both games. These games also featured the debut of two players in a Cubs uniform, RF Kyle Tucker, acquired in a big trade with the Houston Astros in the off-season, and rookie 3B Matt Shaw.

The Cubs went into the win column for the first time when they defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in their first stateside game, played at Chase Field on March 27th, a week after the Tokyo Series. C Miguel Amaya was the hero that day, as he drove in five runs on a pair of doubles. They then went on to have a very good first month, as they finished April with a record of 18-13, putting them in first place in the NL Central. This was largely the result of having the best offense in the majors during that period, as their 184 runs paced everyone, even the New York Yankees who had gotten off the starting blocks by blasting homers every which way. The Cubs' 42 homers placed them fourth in the majors. One of the unexpected key contributors was CF Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was mainly counted on to provide great defense, but who seemed to have finally found his batting stroke, hitting .275 with 17 extra-base hits and an OPS+ of 134. The catching tandem of Amaya and Carson Kelly was also putting up big numbers, as the two had combined for 9 homers and 35 RBIs, with Kelly even managing to hit for the cycle on March 31st. This served as a nice complement to Tucker, who was giving the team everything it expected with an OPS+ of 163, and 1B Michael Busch and DH Suzuki, who had been top offensive performers the previous season. One area of concern was third base, where the rookie Shaw was sent down to the minors after hitting .172 in 18 games.

The Cubs had a record-setting day at Wrigley Field on Independence Day as they homered six times in the first three innings, all off Miles Mikolas, and eight times overall in an 11-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Both of these were team records, and three times during the game the Cubs hit homers back-to-back. Michael Busch was the big star with the first three-homer game of his career, and also the first by a Cubs first baseman since Ernie Banks in 1963, while Crow-Armstrong celebrated his being voted an All-Star Game starter the previous day by going 4-for-4 with two long balls.

The Cubs clinched a spot in the postseason by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4, on September 17th. Their record was 88-64 at that point, and while they were a full five games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, they were also five games better than any other team vying for a wild card spot, which made them most likely to host the Second Wild Card Series. It was their first time reaching the postseason since the strange 2020 season played during the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 28th, the Cubs became just the third team in major league history to have three players collecting at least 20 homers and 20 RBIs: Crow-Armstrong had joined the 30-30 club earlier that week, Kyle Tucker had accomplished the feat in spite of a tough second half, and Dansby Swanson joined them when he stole his 20th base in the penultimate game of the season; it was Swanson's first time getting 20 steals, although he had previously had seasons of 19 and 18 stolen bases.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Matthew Boyd, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker
• MLB All-Rookie Team: Cade Horton (SP)
• NL Gold Glove: Pete Crow-Armstrong (CF), Ian Happ (LF) and Nico Hoerner (2B)
• NL Silver Slugger Award: Kyle Tucker (OF)

Further Reading

• David Adler: "This has been the secret to success for Cubs' trio of sluggers", mlb.com, July 24, 2025. [1]
• Will Aldrich: "Cubs secure first trip to postseason since 2020", mlb.com, September 18, 2025. [2]
• Jordan Bastian: "One big question facing Cubs ahead of 2025", mlb.com, December 26, 2024. [3]
• Jordan Bastian: "Cubs' trip to Tokyo for clash with Dodgers already a memorable experience", mlb.com, March 14, 2025. [4]
• Michael Clair: "Dodgers, Cubs to stage star-studded showdown in Tokyo to begin 2025 season", mlb.com, July 19, 2024. [5]
• Jared Wyllys: "Blasts in bunches: Cubs crush franchise-record 8 homers vs. Cardinals: Busch becomes 1st Cubs first baseman since Ernie Banks to have 3-HR game", mlb.com, July 4, 2025. [6]

2025 MLB season by team