Do The Chicago Cubs Have The BEST Infield In The NL In 2026?

It's time for the burning question

that has taken over America.

Do the Chicago Cubs have the best infield

in the National League in 2026?

Ooh.

Luke, I'm here to tell you that they do.

Oh, let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Now, look, we were having this topic around the office

because, you know, Luis Arias is now in the San Francisco

giant sprint and Donovan gets traded to the Mariners.

You see Boba Shet now in New York.

A lot of different moving pieces here.

So we were asking ourselves a question.

Man, maybe the Cubs don't have the biggest star power

in the infield across the National League,

but I think that they have the best pound for pound player

for player go around the horn,

including catcher infield in the National League.

There are six teams that we think qualify for that list.

Number one, I have the Chicago Cubs.

Number two, I have the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Number three, the Metz.

Number four, the Phillies.

Number five, the Braves.

And number six, the Giants.

And we're going to get into it a little bit more,

but Justin, I think we have the best one now

with Breggman in the fold, best infield in the National League.

Now, I know we're going to dig into this a little bit more,

but I think we all can agree hands down unanimously,

defensively.

Yes, it's a that they do.

That was a percent.

Yes, you're talking about gold glimmers all around the diamond.

Michael Boyce, we feel like could be a gold glimmer at some point.

So I think that defensively, it's not even a conversation.

No, obviously, it's not just defense.

There's also offense, right?

So we got to kind of talk about the offensive part of this as well.

But I think defensively, there is no question in anybody's mind.

I would think even the experts out there there, you know,

tweet the passons of the world defensively.

As Chicago Cubs had the best infield in all the baseball.

What don't they have?

Let's play devil's advocate.

What don't they have?

They don't have the most powerful infield in the National League.

They're just not going to hit a ton of home runs because not

he goes not Bush is going to give you some home runs.

But is he going to give you more than a Freddie Freeman?

Combined with Mookie Bettson, how else do you want to fill that out?

Right.

He's not going to they're not going to hit more home runs than the Padres are on the infield.

They also don't have right now a super star on the infield.

Other teams do have superstars in the infield.

But is the sum of those four guys better than the superstar potential?

It's like the zips projections that we were talking about

for the pitchers.

I like that the Cubs have a bunch of good pitchers, but they may not have a superstar

just yet in the rotation.

But is for really, really good, better than a couple of superstars with some, I don't

know about that third guy or that fourth guy.

That's the question I think we're asking.

That's why I'm leaning into I just think for each player.

Yeah, maybe they don't have so like if you look at it, right?

Like the Metts have let's go wins above replacement.

Just stick with that.

That's right now.

Francisco Lendor 6.3 like great.

Trade Turner 6.7 Matt Olson 4.7 close to a five Cubs don't really have a player like

that.

And if you look at the Dodgers, even Mookie Bettson at down year 3.4, but you go around

the diamond with the Cubs, all of their guys are over 3.0 war outside of catcher, which

is still Carson Kelly, a 2.6, no slouch right there.

And if you just add up all the collective war across these six teams, the Cubs come out

on top at 17.9 right behind it.

Philly's combined infield 17.1 met 16.6 Dodgers 15.5 braves 13.4 giant 13.1.

It isn't just about the war step, but that gives you an idea of how complimentary and how

solid the Cubs infield is across the board.

Just in the one that I'm looking at that I'm interested in is the Atlanta braves though,

not necessarily at the top of the list right now, but Austin Riley healthy season next

year Matt Olson still in the mix, Hans Young, Hans Young Kim now in the fold and off

of course Drake Baldwin and catcher, they're kind of an interesting, are they a bounce

back?

Well, Kim's already heard.

Yeah.

Well, Kim's already heard for right now.

Yeah.

But when you move into the season, they're one of the interesting bounce backs.

But if you go across the diamond, it doesn't really get much better than the Cubs.

I think I think Luke, you put it perfectly where it's like, we may not have the superstar

in our infield yet, but like we don't have any weak links either.

You know what I'm saying?

Like we really across the board, we're solid at every single spot.

And you know, I throw a couple wild cards in there, the fact of like, you know, you

talk about cars in Kelly, we got a guy named Miguel Maya as well that, you know, wild

card.

What's going to happen?

You got Matt Shaw as well.

So all these different things, I feel like we're probably the most deep infield collectively.

And I mean, as War says, we are the top rated infield with that stat and I just feel like

there's also more to go.

Michael Bush, is it what Michael Bush was last year?

I think Michael Bush is still like this.

So man, it's guys are women.

We said in the Giants conversation, like if you're talking Matt Chapman versus Braggman,

I think Braggman's a better player.

I agree.

But it's, it's a good conversation.

It's a good conversation.

That short, Willie Adamus is better than Dan's B Swanson because of the home run potential

and stuff like that.

I just, I guess it depends on how much you value power and a lot of teams right now really

value power.

The Cubs have shown the one thing they value almost as much as anything right now is they've

been trying to build this team towards a championship team is defense.

I don't believe that built, I love a good defense, but I'd rather have four guys that hit

40 home runs, but, but, but I don't know that anybody has that.

So I'm willing to go out on a limb and say the Cubs have the best infield in the nationally.

Do I think it's close?

Yes.

There are good infields around Major League Baseball and in the nationally, but I think there's

a real solid argument and I don't think it's crazy to say going into the season that Cubs

could have the best.

The infield that's going to mash next year and to what you're saying I want all these

guys to hit some bombs is probably going to be the match, right?

They got Lindor, Francisco Alvarez behind the plate.

Marcus Simeon will see, I think he still might have a year or two good left in him, Boba

Shatt and then of course Jorge Planco is going to play first base guy.

You got a huge offensive season last year.

It's good.

But again, when you talk about Jorge Planco at first base and Boba Shatt at third base,

I don't like those defensive options as much as I do with the Cubs with the Phillies.

The other one that's intriguing is Trey Turner, obviously, we all know who Bryce Harper

is.

You know, the, the second baseman, Stott had a really good year last year and real Muto

behind the plate.

They have Alc Bomb there right now, but they love Aiden Miller coming up from their system

right now.

So maybe he's a guy that kind of leaps their infield up into the mix a little bit more.

But again, stability, what you're going to get on a day to day basis, all these guys play

every day.

They're all going to at least give you above league average offense, but again, above

way league average defense, all the guys in the infield go give you a three plus war.

I'm going with the Cubs, stick with Cubs.

One more thing I'll add.

The only place we don't have power is Nico Horner, and it is everything else right.

So I mean, we Michael Bush is a powerful dude who is not, I don't think reached the ceiling

yet.

There has to be sponsor for you.

Say what you want about his contract.

Yeah, there's 25 home runs.

You know, I mean, maybe that's where he's at.

Uh, Brevman.

I don't know how really is going to play to his power, right?

But either way, we have power in the infield, just not at second base, but we have a really

good second baseman there.

This has been very scientific.

There has been no humorism.

There's been no favor.

It's not a month away from spring training, but the stats back in all the CS the zips

back it up, the Cubs have the best infield in the national us.

Yes.

The best infield in the national's soul that's back.

This heads back the zips back it up.

The Cubs have the best infield in the national needs.

Yes.

Yes.

The best infield in the national'sID.