Looking ahead to 2024: Cubs look to build on last season’s success

They didn’t land Shohei Ohtani, and the Cubs likely never had much of a chance at signing baseball’s best player.

An impact talent like Ohtani would have made the Cubs instant World Series contenders. But they still look to be in “great health,” as new manager Craig Counsell described the state of the franchise after replacing David Ross.

Here are five things to watch in 2024:

Core strength

Taking over as president of baseball operations after the 2020 season, Jed Hoyer spent much of his first two years on the job tearing down the once powerful team that won the 2016 World Series.

Hoyer was finally able to pivot into add mode last winter and now the Cubs have proven players like Dansby Swanson, Justin Steele, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner to build around.

“The 2023 Cubs team had a good season,” Counsell said. “There’s a core in that team. It’s 83 wins and that means there are things that are close, right? What you have to be careful about is that what happened last year does not indicate this year.

“But there’s a solid core and a solid foundation. That speaks to the health of the organization and that speaks to a bright future.”

Farm strong

According to Baseball America, the Cubs have the sixth-best minor-league system in baseball.

Hoyer has money to spend on free agents, there’s little doubt about that, but he can also use talented prospects like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie and Ben Brown to either bolster the big-league roster or move in trades for established players.

“Of course, there will be players in our system that will be used in trades to acquire other major leaguers,” Hoyer said. “When you get to a place where you don’t have prospects and you don’t have available dollars, you’re stuck. We’re in a place right now where our books are clean long-term and certainly, we do have young players. I think the organizational health is really strong.”

Horton hype

Like most teams, the Cubs need starting pitching.

Proven arms are expensive, and there aren’t many around.

Good teams like the Braves, Dodgers and Rays always seem to develop quality young starters and the Cubs appear to have one in Cade Horton.

Baseball America slotted the 22-year-old righty No. 17 in their latest Top 100 prospects rankings.

The Cubs’ first-round draft pick (No. 7 overall) in 2022 out of Oklahoma, Horton was a combined 4-4 with a 3.26 ERA and 117 strikeouts over 88.1 innings in stops with low Class A Myrtle Beach, high A South Bend and AA Tennessee last season.

“Despite a short track record and a Tommy John surgery in his past, the Cubs bet big on Horton’s showing in the 2022 College World Series,” Baseball America wrote. “So far, that gamble has paid off. The right-hander has shown dominant stuff and has been one of the fastest-rising pitchers in the minors.”

Suzuki surge

Clinging to hopes of claiming a wild-card spot in late September, right fielder Seiya Suzuki dropped a flyball in the eighth inning and the Cubs wound up losing to the Braves after racing out to a 6-0 lead.

It was a crushing setback, but Suzuki’s bat carried the Cubs down the stretch and pointed to brighter days ahead.

A disappointment in his first year (2022) and through the first four months of last season, Suzuki came alive in August and hit .361/.423/.665 over his last 41 games.

“The one thing I saw last year is, as the season went on, Seiya became a very dangerous hitter,” Counsell said. “There were stretches where he was a scary, scary bat in the lineup and someone you had to be really careful with as an offensive player.”

Counsell factor

He’s long been considered one of the best managers in baseball, but Counsell is now facing a different, more intense, pressure than he did in the relative anonymity of Milwaukee.

Not only does he need to guide them to the playoffs, Counsell needs the Cubs to make deep runs.

With the Brewers, Counsell lost nine of his last 10 postseason games.

“The playoffs are a tough animal to conquer,” he said after Milwaukee lost two straight to Arizona in the wild-card round and went home last season. “They are. Unfortunately, we have not.”