Two main points, and yes, this comes off as painfully sour grapes. Sorry, still not over the failure that was the 2026 Chicago Cubs. This team, despite its flaws, led the league in scoring; if you want to argue about the lineup’s inconsistency, fine, but there’s no argument against how elite the defense was all year. And well, it was wasted.
Sports Info Solutions announced its annual Fielding Bible Awards for the 2026 MLB season, and the Cubs took home the Team of the Year award. The least surprising result was Pete Crow-Armstrong winning Player of the Year on defense. Meanwhile, Alex Bregman won at third base.
A quick note on these awards. Sports Info Solutions brought them to the public; they created the Defensive Runs Saved stat featured on Fangraphs. Keep that in mind because, although PCA was voted Player of the Year, he somehow wasn’t voted the best defensive center fielder in 2026, finishing second to Ceddanne Rafaela of the Boston Red Sox.
That’s pretty weird, but if voters were voting strictly on DRS, it makes sense, given that Rafaela ranked ahead of Crow-Armstrong, 21 to 16. But that also makes you wonder how reliable DRS is, because PCA was clearly the best defender in baseball this year on every other defensive metric.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
But I digress; the Cubs had the top-ranked defense in 2026, and it wasn’t close. They finished with 115 DRS, while the Tampa Bay Rays finished second at 87. By Outs Above Average, the Cubs were also first with 74, and their Fielding Run Value of 73 was also first by a wide margin.
A dominant year on defense for the Cubs, who were unfortunately bounced fairly easily from the postseason, losing two in a row to the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card Round.
The second point: imagine how much worse the Cubs’ pitching staff would have been with a lesser defense in 2026. It was already putrid, ending the year with a 6.0 fWAR from the entire pitching staff, which was tied for third-worst in MLB. You can see how much of an impact the defense had for the Cubs, who finished 14th with a team ERA of 4.12 but a 4.60 FIP, 25th in MLB.
It’s just another reminder that the 2026 Cubs had one of the best defenses ever, but their shitty pitching ruined any chance of making noise in the playoffs.
