Monday Morning Cubs Show

The Official Christmas Wish List for the 2026 Cubs

• Carl + Mahoney • Season 2 • Episode 76

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The headlines are quiet, the takes are not. We sift through a sleepy winter meetings and unpack what actually matters for the Cubs in 2026: how bullpen culture gets built on purpose, why Michael Busch facing lefties changes the roster map, and where ownership should place this team in MLB’s payroll tiers. No fluff, no empty rumor-chasing—just a clean look at the levers that create real wins.

I walk through the logic of targeting veteran relievers like Hobie Milner and Phil Maton to set standards, routines, and trust for the younger arms who will rotate through the pen. We talk about the under-the-radar front office move to retain a key pitching-development voice and why moves like that can add more value than a mid-December headline signing. Then we zoom in on Busch’s full-time role: if he holds his own vs lefties, the Cubs don’t need a platoon body eating cash and a roster spot, which frees resources for swing-and-miss relief or a legitimate rotation upgrade.

From there, we get bolder. A six-man rotation could be a competitive advantage across 162, protecting health, pushing starters deeper, and keeping leverage arms fresher. We open runway for bats like Mo Baller and Owen Caissie to get real plate appearances, and we consider the temperature of a Pete Crow-Armstrong extension before the discourse swallows the room. It all ladders up to one standard: 90 wins should be the floor. If Wrigley sells a premium experience, the baseball budget should live in that second tier beneath the Dodgers and Mets, with consistent, targeted spending that shows up in October.

If you’re ready to trade empty noise for practical steps that raise the Cubs’ ceiling, this one’s for you. Tap play, share it with the diehards in your group chat, and if you’re loving the show, drop a five-star review—then tell us: what’s your top wish for the 2026 Cubs?

Thanks for tuning in!

- Carl & Mahoney

SPEAKER_00:

And we're clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show. Today is Monday, December 15th. I am your host, Carl. This is a solo show. Shout out to Mahoney, one of my all-time favorite people in the entire universe. Had a huge weekend celebrating kids' birthdays and then something going on. Mom work, it's that time of the season. So like we're just sneaking in a quick one here, guys. We're just sneaking in a quick, great little cub show. I don't want to like take the sales out of it. I think I prepared a good show here, but just to be upfront, it's it's solo, which I'm comfortable with at this point, uh, just based on our schedules. Don't lose faith in Mahoney, though, just because he's not here. Don't think that Mahoney doesn't care about you or the Chicago Cubs, or that he's not in on a Monday morning Cub show. It's just scheduling and it's offseason. Like it's offseason. So, you know, you want to take a week off. You close the show if you want to. Give it a five-star review if you have time, though. Like if you're gonna close the show, go ahead and just throw a five-star review on it. Spotify, Apple. It helps with everything that's going on. We've had a couple of big things I want to talk about with the Chicago Cubs, specifically news-wise, with the bullpen, with an announcement about Michael Bush that I think is huge. So we're gonna get into a couple specific things. And then I put together a Christmas wish list. I'm Catholic. I celebrate Christmas. That's the genesis of this. Um, you know, you want presents as a kid, you put together a list. You send it to Santa. So I wrote down there's 10 things I would like from the 2026 Chicago Cubs, you know, front office, owners, stakeholders, etc. Players, maybe. There's a couple things I like, and I that's gonna be a good exercise for us to go through. Tell me what I'm wrong about. What's on your Christmas wish list? You know, is it the power drill? Is it your wife to be nicer to you next year? You know, get off the couch. You know, when are you gonna ice the driveway? I mean, de-ice the driveway. When are you gonna salt the driveway, Gary? When are you gonna get off your fucking ass and take the trash out? I gotta watch the F-words. I can't believe I used my first F-word of the show on a hypothetical involving Gary getting bitched at by his old lady. But my point is, whatever your wish list is with the 2026 Cubs, I'd like to know it. You know, we know if you get too too specific here, that's a big offseason, I should say, note up front. I don't like to get too like too specific about you know, trade packages. We should trade Owen Casey for we should just everybody sit back and relax and enjoy yourself. Everybody just take a deep breath. Everyone just reach into the refrigerator right now, grab yourself a thirsty vaquero, the title sponsor of Monday Morning Cub Show, an all-bite, no rattle Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish, guys. Three bold flavors. Watermelon with a jalapeno, you know, mango with a habanero, lime with a little bit of chili pepper and salt, three bold flavors, a non-alcoholic Mexican-style soda. You can mix it with booze if you want. You can have it as a standalone. You can pour it into a cocktail glass and treat it as a cocktail. You know, you want to sit down at the end of the night, just have a nice, like crisp, refreshing beverage. You want to put something fancy in the cooler that's going to get people at the family party talking. You know, maybe you're having a pregame. Thirsty Vacero bombs rock. I threw a party a couple months ago. We had thirsty vaquero bombs. Uh, you know, things went, things got wild, things got weird. And that's hard, that's a hard place to get to. I'm 38 years old. That's a hard place to get that weird party social atmosphere with your friends. It just starts to die down, obviously, as you get older. And you get 38, it's almost non-existent. You really got to go out of your way. And my point in all of this is saying thirsty vacero is a conduit to that via vacero bomb, where we did get weird, we did have a good time, we did stay up late, we did end up playing. You know, are we playing cards? Is there karaoke? Right? Is there a group of women on my front lawn in their early 40s playing beer punk, like screaming at each other being competitive? Yes, why? The vaquero bombs, just turning it up a notch, but at the same time, I'm not just saying a vaquero bomb with alcohol. It is a standalone, it is a non-alcoholic, it's a Mexican-style, signature spicy finish, all bite, no rattle soda. Ship on Amazon. And if you want to support the show, you like the Chicago Cubs, they are the title sponsor of the show. The best thing you can do is you can go make a purchase from Thirsty Vacaro. You can go get yourself a just go get yourself a rich, bold, uh, you know, 12-pack and tell me I'm wrong. Other thing too, if you don't support Thirsty Vacaro, Chicago Cubs will go under 500 next season. I did have a vision last night. I had a dream. And that takes us into the theme of today's show. I don't want to freak anybody out, but I did have a vision. I did have a dream that if you don't support the title sponsor of the show, Cubs go under 500 next year. And as we get in the Christmas wish list, obviously you're gonna realize that's not you don't want to be responsible for that. You don't want that blood on your hands. Theme of this week's show, guys, everybody just relax, myself included. Mid-December, coming out of winter meetings, laying fucking eggs. There's your that's a good one. That's a good F word. Laying fucking eggs. You know. I can't I can't even I'm trying, I'm catching my breath here. What I want to do is close a gap between Cubs fans that are still believers that the Ricketts family are these billionaires that give a shit about you, and not people that just want the prime real estate, not people that just want to own the ballpark and have the business that are trying to figure out what to do with daddy's money, not an Omaha family that's expanding into Chicago uh, you know, over the last 15 years, and partnering, you know, with big high profile Chicago people on real estate developments. Um, you know, really stuff that like if you're the owner of the Cubs, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't necessarily need to see you do that. Um, what I need to see is you go down to winter meetings and splash the pot a little bit, um, or at least give us some juice or action. I mean, anything we've we haven't been attached to any, there's even been a rumor. It's just you wake up one day, we sign Phil Mayton, I like that. We sign Hobie Milner, I like that. But but like Pete Alonzo to the Oriol Orioles, they're they're ahead of us right now. People are a lot of people are far ahead of where the Chicago Cubs are. And we'll talk more about that as we get in the wish list. But you know, I'm not an I told you so guys, but like when the winter meetings came up, we didn't I didn't give a shit. I told you guys not to give a shit. But don't get stressed out. You don't need to be like, you don't need to be stuck on Twitter. Um, you certainly don't need to have your notifications enabled. You know, I'd like to be wrong about this, but there was there's no juice at the winter meetings around the Chicago Cubs. I feel bad for my guy Blake. Collie, great Blake Collie, great Chicago Cubs content, young guy lives in St. Louis, Chicago Cubs uh content creator, young guy, you know, early 20s, a lot of fucking spice in that guy. He goes to winter meetings and shit. He sat at the winter meetings and was making content, interviewing people. There's this is what the Cubs do to you. There's nothing to talk about. There's not and I feel bad for the A, the Cubs fans that followed the winter meeting so closely, hoping for juice, you know, waiting for Jesse Rogers to drop. The Cubs have signed anybody. But in the back of my head, for years following the Cubs as close as I as I do, and knowing as much um as I've been able to put together over the years, and we get to this point, what do we think we're gonna do in the winter meetings? I mean, take the week off. We don't need to send representatives to the winter meetings, go to fucking Cancun, do it all inclusive. And I'm not saying that to be mean and bitch and whine and like I'm sick and tired. I'm just can we just be real? Can like we move into the phase where we're just realistic about who we are? Can we just get to the point where we agree? There's no we don't need to go to winter meetings. Who gives a fuck? Now, I am overreacting to the fact that Cubs aren't linked to any news at all. But again, this all started because I'm saying I'd like to close the gap between the people who still don't realize like we're not that like even close. Now, I'm not I hope people aren't interpreting this as saying like we lost out on Pete Alonzo. I mean, that is the dumbest we're not talking about Pete Alonzo as a target. What I'm saying is the Orioles go out. No one saw him going to the Orioles. Would they give him$31 million over five years or something? Six years, he got a great fucking deal. That guy, that Pete Pete Alonso got a great deal for a guy who is seeking, I thought$200 million from the Mets not too long ago. They told him the pound saying, What do you got? A short-term deal last year. This ain't an Orioles podcast. This is about Pete Alonso. But you know, the the long-winded point is me trying to close the gap coming out of these winter meetings. I'm not trying to say I told you so. But like, obviously, we don't have we don't have any sexy juice. We don't have news, we don't have momentum, we've got guys lurking in the shadows. We've got who is it, what's his name? I'm gonna butcher his name, Tyler Zombro, Zambrano, who is our pitching. He's a pitching development guy for the Chicago Cubs that interviewed for the Washington Nationals pitching coach job. And the Cubs didn't like that. I shouldn't say they didn't like it, but they were they don't want to let this guy go. So they promoted him his title. He's the vice president of pitching, whatever the fuck that means. Vice, but we got that. He's sitting next to the concessions guys. He's in the marketing meetings, he's with the other vice presidents, he's the vice president of pitching because the nationals interviewed him, so the cubs are like, we'll just give you a ton of money. You're staying right here. He must be very fucking important, guys. He he must be one of the most important people in the organization. That's the stuff that's going on with the Chicago Cubs this time of year. You know, the Nationals are trying to poach one of our guys, so we give him an executive position, hopefully triple the salary in a nice car. You know, you're not going anywhere, buddy. You're here. You're you're part of the Chicago Cubs organization. I like that shit a lot. You know, and that makes me a psychopath. That makes me a masochist, that makes me somebody who just is uh I should be locked in a shed for how much I like this. But what I've done in or what enables me to enjoy this move so much, a stick it to somebody else in the National League. He's not gonna be your pitching coach, fuck off. B, uh you're too important. The last time we did this was with a guy named Jason McLeod, who was in charge of amateur scouting underneath Theo with the Boston Red Sox earlier in San Diego when they worked for the Padres under Kevin Towers. Jason McLeod came up with Theo Epstein. Then Jed Hoyer joined their group. There was like a buddy group, young guys sitting around the conference room table chopping it up. You know, how do we how do we win the World Series type stuff? Jason McLeod was attached to the hip with Theo Epstein. When he came to the Cubs and had effectively rebuilt the Cubs, a lot of it was through Jason McLeod's amateur scouting and through his drafting and et cetera. You know, like Kyle Schwabert, that's a Jason McLeod pick. Javi Bias is that's not a Jason McLeod pick. That is not Chris Bryan is Anthony Rizzo as a trade target. That is it, that's a Jason McLeod move. This is long-winded, but I don't know. I think the nationals, somebody was interviewing Jason McLeod to be their GM. And then the Cubs came back. Theo was like, you can't leave. And he's like, I gotta get, I gotta get the show on the road. I gotta take care of myself. You know, this is a big move for me. And Theo's like, no, we need you. You know, you you have to be here. So, like, whatever they're gonna pay you, we're gonna pay you more. You know, whatever title you want, you got it. Whatever authority you need from us, you have it. Whatever you want out of your career, if it's money, if it's anything, we'll take care of you. You know. That's the that's where my head's at as I hear about this the uh player development pitching guy that the nationals are interviewing to be the pitching coach, Cubs come back. No, now you're our VP of pitching, that's probably gonna end up being our biggest move of the offseason. And I don't mean that to be cheeky, I mean that to be like that as far as wins and losses are concerned next year. If you're telling me we have a guy that's so important that I haven't even heard of, the nationals want to make him a pitching coach, the Cubs are gonna step in, make him an executive, tell the Nationals to fuck off. This guy's obviously very important. Losing this guy sounds like it would have been a significant issue. So I don't, I mean, I wish at this point if you have information on how important this guy is, by all means. But we're just off-season musings here. It's December, it's mid-December. I don't think Alex Bregman signed last year till late March. Which that's three months from now. So we have time. We have time, fellows. We have time, you have time, you have time to figure out, you know. Let's all do this together. Let's all get let's get the let's become the let's just get into the mindset of being the best version we can be in 2026. And that's obviously I love Jed. I think he's working towards shit. I I don't like Carter Hawkins in front of a microphone, but otherwise seems like he's pretty knowledgeable. I I suppose it just again, maybe just you know, they just shut the fuck up a little bit, tiny bit, Carter. Um, but overall, like I I like this, I like our front office, I like the moves so far. I'm not necessarily mad that we haven't, you know, made some huge upgrades. The one thing I'll get mad about, and it's on the Christmas wish list, is just generally where we sit in these payroll rankings. Obviously the Dodgers and the Mets are gonna be at the top, but then there's a clear category underneath that, led by the Yankees, the Phillies, the Padres, the Blue Jays, the Braves are gonna crack into it. The Cubs have to be in that. Not like outside of that in the third tier. The Cubs have to be in the in a tier. So we'll talk more about that. But this is solo. This is what you do in solo shows. You just kind of, you know, we're I'm I have a list, and I'm kind of walking around it a little bit too much here. Five stars on Spotify if you get a chance, or Apple helps big time, helps more than you realize. You might be one of those guys you're driving around, it's not that important. It's important. I'd actually really appreciate it. So small call to action. Uh okay, so a couple news things here, guys, and we're gonna get in the Christmas the Christmas. The Christmas wish a list. Alright. And I should just say that the the following news roundup is you know, it's brought to you, who is it brought to you by? It's brought to you by the it's brought to you by Stirk Family Farms. How about that? Promo code MMCS for 20% off all our skincare products. I guarantee delivery for Christmas. I guarantee delivery for December 25th. Special lady in your life, get her some miracle bomb. She's gonna be like, what the who the f where is this come from? My wife makes this stuff. People are obsessed with it. And our customer base, the people that are obsessed with it and that subscribe to it and that we've bit the customer base and uh the little community we've built around this product, it is uh ravenous. I promise you, if you give this to a significant other in your life, and you go, I know a guy, he has a farm, he talks about the cubs, blah, blah, blah. It's all natural, healthy skincare, hands, face, wagyu beef tail, eye cream, lip, you know, we have a bunch of different little things in the store, I should say, bomb related. I'm telling you, she'll love it. She'll be like, How did you know? And I know this as much as I know that we weren't gonna do shit in the winter meetings. You got a significant other in your life, or if you like taking care of yourself, if you're somebody who likes taking care of your skin, your hands this time of year. This is the Chicago Cubs news roundup. It's brought to you by Sturk Family Farms. Promo code MMCS 20% off the store. People hate promos. I don't necessarily care. It's the family business. MMCS 20% off sturkfamilyfarms.com. Go make somebody happy this time of year. Two big things. We get a soft toss in lefty with a low angle in Hobie Milner, who went to, I believe went to UT, went to the University of Texas, has a pedigree. I believe he played for Augie Garrito. You know, like anybody gives a shit. He more importantly, he played for correct counsel in Milwaukee. And he obviously wants to play for council. His pitch at Wrigley Field on the opposite side. So you like the fact that I love veterans that come in with extensive experience at Wrigley Field, because it's a guy who wants to be here. He wants that part of his career, and that's how we're gonna build the bullpen. Smart veteran, you know, transactions, low cost. I know people hate hearing this. We gave two years to Phil Mayton, outstanding stuff. Guys got filthiest breaking shit coming out of the bullpen, throws 90 miles an hour. We got another guy that throws 86. Now, how much does Hobie no 91? Now that's not power. I don't give a fuck, though. Ben Brown throws 100. That guy sucks. Just hear me out here. I love building a bullpen initially around core veterans that have like a get the job done attitude. We didn't keep Andrew Kittrich for 9 million, so be it. But I love the way that guy went about his job. He blew a save, came back the next day, threw an immaculate inning. I mean, you want to talk about just turn the page. Goldfish memory. So then you build those parts out in the bullpen and you put them into trusted situations. What you're doing is you're building bullpen culture so that when a guy like Jackson Wiggins, or if Ben Brown was to turn a corner, or some of our younger guys that will spend time in that bullpen, you have a very good framework for these guys to grow and develop. Be like drafting an offensive lineman and asking him to start at left tackle week one. That's you got to be pretty fucking good. That's a very difficult transition, right? Wouldn't you rather draft a guy, put him into a solid offensive lineman room with tough guys that have like, you know, been through career journeys and stuff. And by the end of the year, the whatever the younger guy that you drafted in that culture is gonna be way better off because of that. And bullpens are very much like that. Bullpens are a unique subgroup within the clubhouse because they're all not necessarily close friends, but you spend so much time together that otherwise is no one else is doing it in an isolated sport, you know, and personal successes and losses and stuff. Like, how often they don't sit around and people go, our bull or our infields only hitting 300 or out or our only, our infields only slugging, you know, 350. There and people aren't sitting around going, our outfield cannot get on base. But you'll say our bullpen, you'll group, and that's how it works with the relievers. It's a tight group fucking thing, you know. They're the least paid guys on the club pitching or performing almost exclusively under the highest amount of pressure. And it's not necessarily the easiest job. So this is a long-winded uh, although I guess the whole show is because it's solo, but uh, this is kind of like a drawn out. What do I like about them about the Milner signing about the lefty? And what do I like about Maton? Is the same thing that I liked about last year's bullpen culture and just building this out so that it's a a good environment for younger guys, you know, to really thrive. And a good example of that would be Daniel Palencia taking the reins as the closer, you know, making adjustments throughout the season. By the end of the year, you know, was he great? I don't I don't know if he was great, but I I certainly trusted him a lot more. And I'm not saying that's just entirely because of the bullpen culture, but you better believe that shit helps. You better believe that shit helps when you're just sitting there day after day with a bunch of guys in their mid to late 30s that are just going out there and doing the job. And I believe the Chicago Cubs had like the fifth or sixth best bullpen in Major League Baseball last year. However, people rank that shit. Was it second best or fifth? Second best defense, fifth best pitching staff without Justin Steele and like half a season of Cade Horton. So okay. That's a long-winded take on the Holby Milner signing. But we just buying into bullpen culture. You know, as much as I hate as much, I mean, I wish we could just buy into the fact that we gave the top three relievers like awesome contracts, buy into the fact that we have money for Edwin Diaz. I'm with you guys. I'm mad. I wish I wish it was the way it was 10 years ago. You know, did you hear Lester sign with the Cubs? Did you hear Haywards coming? No, no. No. We got Phil Maeton, Hobie Milner, we promoted a guy to VP. You just gotta laugh about it. I mean, we're charging the highest ticket prices like for any sporting event like in the history of the United States, I believe. Right? It's like the most expensive game day experience. Um for like anything. I guess excluding the NFL. What do we get out of it? The offseason news we celebrate. Hobie Milner. Welcome, buddy. Enjoy Southport. Your wife's gonna love it. Pushing a baby stroller. She's gonna love pushing a baby stroller in that neighborhood. Not as safe as you would think, though. It is well lit, but there is still crime there because it it butts against um, where was I? I was in Roscoe Village. I always thought it was the safest place in the world. Then we had carjackings, we had muggings. Uh a couple was robbed at gunpoint outside of our favorite restaurant. That was that was when we were like, maybe we should. Maybe it isn't that maybe it's not as safe. You know, and not that anybody gives a fuck about my take on public safety. You know, I'm just simply welcoming Holby Milner to the Chicago Cubs. I'm simply welcoming this guy to the north side of Chicago. Also just sidely encouraging him, like, hey, you know, like it may not, it may look. Uh, other big other big piece of news, some people aren't gonna like that one. Fucking pound sand. All right, get in line. Michael Bush will face lefties in 2026. That was probably the biggest news that came out of the winter meeting cycle, is that Michael Bush will face lefties, which salves a thing we've talked about on the show extensively, which is what to do with a righty uh or where to get a righie, or do we give a roster spot to a rigy who like is only spelling Michael Bush, like Justin Turner, basically. Like, can we just wholesale eliminate that position moving forward? Or do we need to platoon Bush? Are we gonna treat like that veteran clubhouse leader? Is it that's important? Can't touch righties. He had a couple big moments. I think he was valuable in the long run. You can't bring him back, obviously. I I think at the end of the day, it was probably worth it to have Justin Turner on the team last year, but then at the expense of what? Like, can Jonathan Long play? We don't we didn't we'll we didn't know from last year he didn't get any chances at all. You know what we find out at spring training? Jonathan Long is a triple-A uh guy from like Elon or College of Charleston or one of the SoCon schools, I think. I think we got him in the second or third round, maybe fourth, big big guy, third baseman, first baseman. Probably a little slow, probably like slower bat, probably like not quick or explosive, but the guy has just thumped minor league pitching. You know, so then like my point is saying, like, now the path is probably more open for Jonathan Long to get playing time, and that that's simply because we make the announcement that Michael Bush will face lefties in 2026, which is just a it's a huge announcement. It's it solves you know, like what what what percentage of games are started by left-handed pitchers in Major League Baseball? 30%. Is that fair? You know, like we sit we would sit Michael Bush a lot, or if at towards the end of the season, when we used Michael Bush against lefties in 2025, we'd have to flip the whole lineup. So then Bush would hit eighth, and then he'd hit leadoff the next day. So when we see when people talk about Michael Bush being good, he was ninth in weighted runs created plus. He was 11th in home runs. He was, you know, whatever, fifth in, I don't know, OPS, something, ninth, tenth. He had a great season last year. He's a top five first baseman uh in the National League and probably a top eight first baseman. He's in the top. He's probably in the top quarter of his position, I'd say. You know? He's great. Wonderful. Did everything against righties. Now that is the platoon advantage. At the end of the season, we did let him hit against lefties. He looked awful relative to how good he looks against righties. He looks awesome against righties. But whatever path we pick, like this is it. Alright, so now Bush has the offseason to kind of train on this. It's been made public. You know, pencil the guy in for 550, 600 plate appearances next year if he's healthy. So then just the next question I just moved to is can we put Bush in the lineup against righties and lefties in kind of similar fashion? If he hits, can he hit fifth against righties and sixth against lefties? Do we have to hit are we gonna hit him leadoff next year against righties and then hit him eighth again as lefties? If we do that for a full season, I think that's that's say it, say it, Carl, fucking crazy. It's crazy. You know, it's cra that's just cra that would be crazy to me, but like, you know, again, Bill James says that batting order doesn't matter. I think it matters to the individual. I think it matters to a guy who's like if you hit first or you hit, do you hit lead off the game, or are you hitting in the third inning? Like that has to impact the way you feel. Who knows? You know? Who who knows? What we do know about it is that it solves an off-season need. If we're gonna say it's against lefties, now we don't need to go get a veteran corner, we don't need to spend that 8 million on Paul Goldschmidt, even though I would have liked to see Goldie. We don't we just don't even need to mess with that, and we can take the roster spot, and then it's like fine, Moe Baller and Owen Casey opening day roster, and maybe a Jonathan Long. But if we're gonna be a team that sits in the third tier at payroll, obviously behind the Dodgers and the Mets, and then like the group I said after that, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Braves, the Blue Jays, probably the Red Sox. You know, after that, then you can talk about the Chicago Cubs. Right now. And so if that's our identity, which obviously sucks. I've said this before, it blows, but just say fine, fuck it. That accept it. Then the move forward is player development has to just continue to get better and has to continue to excel. Like excel and improve. Even it's been excellent, just continue to be excellent and improve. And so then we have to hit on some guys. We got to hit on a baller, we gotta, we gotta hit on Owen Casey, we gotta hit on somebody, Jonathan Long, Jefferson Rojas. I don't care who it is. Ethan Conrad, you know, whoever it is, if this is who we are, now we gotta really, now we really got to hit it out of the park on the player development stuff. And I think in saying that Bush, you're only gonna face lefties, now takes the roster spot that would have for sure gone to a Justin Turner type. If we're gonna platoon at first base, you'd have to have a so now it's like, well, if we're gonna have Bush hit lefties full time, now we have a little bit, now we're a little bit more open-minded to we don't need to sign that veteran. That eight million can go to the Phil Maton deal or can go to whatever, the bullpen, Pete Fairb. I don't care. Improve the roster in more critical areas, you know, and then you and then you can have a not you can have a Jonathan, and I keep you going back to Jonathan Long. And I'm just using him as an example. You have more runway with these young guys on the roster and not feeling pressure like we have to play him every day, or you know, he's here, so he has to play. There's a lot of good things to that can come from Michael Bush facing lefties, provided he can face lefties. Like just because you put him in the lineup doesn't mean he can hit a lefty. And he's looked bad against lefties. So fortunately, it's the offseason. He's a psychopath, he's a maniac when it comes to self-improvement. Uh so hopefully that's just like number one on the list. What do we do? He's getting ready to hit lefty, he's getting ready to play every day. He's getting ready and he has his success under his belt, you know, for a full season, two full seasons now, but really last year just so much better. And now and and name, I think Cubs fans are very comfortable and trusting and around at this stage in his career. So if he can hit lefty, we're in such a better, we're we're in such great condition and shape if he can be competent against lefties, if he can have a 105 OPS plus against left-handed starting pitching. I think that's you know, can he be 5% better than an MLB average? Because he's gonna be 45% better against right-handed pitching. We know that. But like, how good, how good is good enough for Michael Bush? You know, this is really long-winded stuff. But guys, guys, light week on news. Mid-December, winter meeting, snooze fest. Go get yourself a Thirsty McCarroll promo code Stirk Family Farms, MMCS 20% off. Take a deep breath, everybody. I hope I hope you guys are having a good close to the year. I should say that to the meetings. I should have said this off the top. This is a weird time of year because this is where the calendar starts getting funky. People take time off work, you know. It's just a fun, it's just a funky time of the calendar, you know, being around family, and I'm lucky because I've got a great family to be around, you know. But I I also understand that I'm very lucky, you know. So for the maniacs that are, you know, it's as if this time of the year's tough because, you know, family, maybe family's not what it was, or it's just a different set of circumstances or whatever. I just want you to know that I love you and I'm here for you. I am I mean that sincerely. The maniacs are here for you. This is our it's our holiday season together, whatever you believe in. I said off the top, it's my Christmas wish list that we're gonna get to because I'm Catholic. I celebrate Christmas. And if I was Jewish and I celebrated Hanukkah, then it would be my Hanukkah list. You know, assuming you guys make lists. I think you guys make lists for you've got to be making lists for Hanukkah presents. You have to. Or or maybe you, I don't know. I knew I grew up making lists, it's that time of the year. So just a quick note to the maniac, just a friendly reminder of the maniac community. A lot of love out here. A lot of love out here for you guys this time of year. You know, it gets funky, seasonal depression's in the mix. You know, so just be good to yourself, take care of yourself, mind, body, get some sleep. You don't have to be, you know, you don't have to be up all night, right? So let's get to the Christmas wish list. This should be quicker than I anticipated. Long show here. I thought that I always do this to myself. I thought I would just do 30 minutes. We're past 30 minutes. I thought I'd just sit down and just get do, we're just gonna run through things. But then as we get as we get through the conversation, it's like, you know, there are some sub-realizations as I'm having this conversation with you guys about what the the significance of Michael Bush taking all of these left-handed starting pitching spaces away from a veteran right is significant, and it's not gonna get talked about nearly enough in local sports media because it's fucking too complicated for some people to talk about. And it's not a contract and it doesn't move the needle on social media or whatever the, you know, whatever the fuck it is people care about. But I I'm marking this. Michael Bush facing lefties in 2026. I can't say enough about the implications that has on roster strategy, lineup strategy, spring training, you know, opening day lineups, trade deadline, because then it creates that need where we're gonna have to go get that get somebody at trade deadline. It's so big. And then the bullpen culture stuff that that you cannot shake off, or where we're at in payroll standings relative to the rest of the league. If you're gonna have the most expensive experience in baseball, you cannot be the 11th fucking payroll. You cannot be at the very bottom of the list of teams that have paid a luxury tax. You just can't, or can you? That's what Tom Ricketts has done. And we're gonna be in this holding pattern, I would expect, for at least a couple years. So here's the here's the wish list. This is the official 2026 um, you know, Carl's Christmas wish list for the Chicago. No. This is the 2025 Christmas wish list for the 2026 Chicago Cubs, which doesn't that one's diff that's difficult. It's 2025 Christmas, but the wish list is for the Cubs for next year. So I could have thought this one out a little better. This is on me. This is bad packaging, this is bad wrapping paper. All right, number one on the wish list. We have 10 things. I'll be as quick as I can, which is log on the tooth. All right, it's just who I am. Number one is a six-man rotation. I mean a full six-man rotation. So one thing I've done this offseason, uh, and I've done progressively over offseasons, I really like the history of baseball. And I really like reading about different uh any honestly, anything that has to do with baseball, professional baseball in particular. I mean, literally anything. I um I'll sound like a huge loser, but just pretend there was like Comic Con for baseball nerds about baseball history. I would go to that convention. I would go to a baseball nerd factory fest and I would nerd out. All right. And a takeaway that I've had in my um, I don't know, in the in these off-season thoughts of mine, is that there it there's this room for innovation in baseball. And the people that innovate and the people that do something different and new and do it well, it create a competitive advantage. And so there's obviously so many examples of it. The most obvious is you know, focusing on on base percentage and slugging and the money ball. You know, they have all that bullshit. And and as baseball continues to evolve technology and knowing spin rates and all this, all this bullshit, you know, it's harder to I shouldn't say harder, but it's maybe it's harder to conceptualize where the next where is a competitive advantage going to come from. And I don't know if this is a light bulb, but you know, I'm on the elliptical. I'm on the elliptical. I'm listening to a baseball book on tape. You know? Um and the light bulb that comes on is like too many starting pitching injuries. You know, I'm sick and tired of watching Cade Horton come out in the fifth inning. You know, we lose Justin Steele. We lose Shotokanagas and Iall. Has anybody ever been like, maybe we should have six, maybe we should have more starting pitching? Or are we just gonna accept the inevitability of injuries? I don't understand the obsession with the five-man rotation when the bulk of data for the last 15-20 years shows us that you can't do it. Like, why do we even pretend five-man rotations exist? When a major league set back in the steroid era, the 2005 White Sox, I believe they only use five starting, maybe six starting pitchers, including Brandon McCarthy at the end. You know, like it's rare, is what I'm saying. Why would you why do we even call it a five-man rotation? You we end up using 14 starting pitchers in a season. No, you use five, because it's the rotation that you go through is five man Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc. So my first wish list is just a full-on fuck you, six-man rotation with a with a Justin Steele, with a Kate Horton, with Matt, but I think that's amazing. I think that would be amazing. I think it would these guys would be extra sharp. And if it helps with injury concerns, guys go deeper in games, you're using the bullpen less. It's a 26-man roster. Can we just pretend that the 26th guy is a six-starting pitcher and go back and you know manage the team the same way Craig Council did when it was 25-man rosters for the Brewers? The the reason this is first on my wish list is again, I'm just sick and tired of watching guys come out in the fifth inning, and I'm sick and tired of where the starting pitching conversation's headed two times through the lineup. You know, you only need to go get 15 outs, whatever the hell it is. Because ultimately, we get to when we get to the playoffs, you need as much starting pitching feeling as good as it possibly can. It's not you just don't need arms, you need arms to be like thriving in October, which is how the hell do you play a six-month season, then feel like you're thriving into October? And if we all agree that like you can never have too much pitching, can we start focusing on keeping the starting pitching healthy? So a six-man rotation over 162 games, what is it, 27 starts a guy? Exactly. On the dot. Exactly. All right. Well, I mean, we know for sure guys can't make 32 starts a season. Can they make 27? I'd be interested in finding out about that. And I think the Cubs have the depth, particularly if Jamison Teon's still on contract. You know, Javier Arsad, I'm happy with him being a sixth. I would gladly take the six-man rotation and then maybe create a bullpen, a new role in the bullpen, which is the guy who gets, you know, what is that? Is this then the sixth inning guy? Does he become important? Somebody who pitches the sixth and seventh inning. That's what I would like to see. We go to a we go to a six-man rotation, and then we create a role in the bullpen for somebody that can pitch the sixth and the seventh inning. And I think we see if Jackson Wiggins is up for the task his first year in profession, you know, in the major leagues, in the big leagues. You know, is that something Ben Brown can do? Probably not. And am I getting too too detailed about the first thing on my wish list? No, I'm not. I am not. I'd like to see a six-man rotation. Number two on the wish list, Christmas wish list. I'd like to see Mo Baller get 450 plate appearances in 2026, which means he's getting a lion chair DH work. Which means say a Suzuki's getting a lion chair right field work. I don't give a s I think Mo Baller is swaggier than Javi as an offensive player. I I think he has more confidence than anybody I've ever seen wear a Chicago Cubs uniform as a rookie, as a young virgin in baseball, I should say. You know? I just I've met I've the the demeanor and the appearance in the strike zone discipline. Like Javi would come up and take just the craziest swings in twenty the twenty fourteen Javi, twenty one. Is it 23 to 14, Javi? Holy shit. The swings and misses in the waves. Now, obviously, a lot of swag, a lot of confidence, a lot of lot of machismo from Javi in the field. I'm talking about in the batter's box, just like that's that I'm belong here. There's nothing else I should be doing in this world other than being in this major league batter's box, is how I would describe Mo Baller. And like strike zone discipline, that doesn't slump. Sorry. Chase rate, that doesn't slump either. You know, like knowing this if it's a ball or strike and then swinging if it's a strike and putting it like that stuff doesn't necessarily slump. And Moe Baller has it in spades. No, maybe he's not as swaggy as Avi. Maybe that's ridiculous. But he's in that conversation. He's in the conversation. And so my second thing on the wish list is I want to see him get 450 plate appearances this year because I think he I think he's good enough. And then like I would just like to see him explode. And then we sign into one of those team-friendly extensions in the middle of the season that nobody sees coming. You know, did you just see Mo Baller sign an eight-year$50 million extension with the Cubs? Perfect. Guys worth a 135 OPS plus in the bank. Every single season, this guy plays Major League Baseball. And I'm as right as I've been about anything in my life, I'll just take all of that and put it on red here. And or black, whatever the fucking that's the call I'm making on this. With certainty. I'm like Arnold Rothstein. Is that that's a guy who fixed the 1919 World Series? You know, did a boardwalk empire re uh rewatch. Rothstein, the fixer, the gambler. That's who I am when I'm talking about Mo Baller, guys. I'm telling you. Number two on the list, Moe Baller, 450 plate appearances in 2026. Number three, okay, so PCA, we have to sign PCA to an extension. I don't think he will. But we have to. We have to. We have to get in front of this. It's only gonna become worse. PCA at his best that we've seen from him is like a$50 million a year player. At his worst, this is the shitty part. At his worst that we've seen him, which we saw last year in the second half, he was terrible. He's still slightly above average because he's such a good defender and such an elite base runner. So what is that? The worst version of Pete Crow Armstrong is still worth like eight to ten million, what, nine million a year? He's the best center fielder in baseball, he's the fastest guy in baseball. He's when he does get to base, just wreaks havoc and can do a bunch of crazy shit. So cat's out of the bag. The problem, the extension, then it's like what would he what would what would we do? Probably buy out a year or two of free agency. And then what's the number on that? At the low end, the lowest you get paid this guy is$10 million a year in an extension. Then who fucking cares? He's getting paid$700,$800,000 next year, a million bucks next year on the league minimum before he hits arbitration. And then it'll destroy us in arbitration. Not the first year, but the second, third, and is he a super too? I believe so. Which means you get an extra year arbitration as opposed to another year league minimum. Which means I think Pete Crow Armstrong over the next, we'll call it five years of team control with the Chicago Cubs is probably gonna make what's that number, guys? 2035. I'm just adding it up. I'm gonna say 55 million dollars. 50. Call it an even 50. His first year in free agency, which would follow, he would probably, I guess you have to conservatively say 30 million. You know, you look at the contracts that are given out. There's no way Pete Carr Armstrong doesn't sign in. My point is an exercise to get some numbers on paper. So, like say it's 120 million, you know, over the next seven years of projected earnings. The Cubs would have to give him 180, 200 million dollars to buy that out. I don't I don't know if that's happening. Seven years of Pete Carl Armstrong, probably 170, 175 right now, after his second half. The reason I'm saying we have to get an extension on the books is it will take over cult. He dominated Cubs culture this summer, fell off in the second half. A lot of people kind of the older guys in the crowd, we lost our taste. Everybody is walking around buying their kid a PCA jersey. He's he is in the conversation to be like him, Bedard, Caleb Williams pick somebody from the Bulls as soon as we fire Carnes Owis. It's he is the he's in the making of the biggest name the Cubs have had and the biggest homegrown superstar since Rizzo. And and I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs bringing Rizzo back is part of their way to like regain some control over the fan base because how much the fan base loves PCA. But my point is like you can get the extension now. I would please extend him now. Because like next offseason, going in the lockout or two years after that, um, the number's gonna be way higher. The number should be way higher. One uh two, it's just gonna dominate our entire existence as Cubs fans. It's just gonna completely dominate, and it's only gonna get worse and worse. So what I'm calling all this out, and this is a weird, long-winded item on the wish list, but the PCA extension, it's not just about the value and saving money and being smart about the payroll and all that stuff. Like, as a fan, I would like it just because I would it like I would like to get rid of the anxiety around that I know is looming. It's coming. And it's not gonna be this off. It's it's coming. When it does show up, it will be the biggest fucking thing that we've talked about as Cubs fans. Can you believe they're letting PC? Can you believe they didn't say can you believe with PCA and they're gonna trade PCA and we have PCA and just the amount of PCA discourse like I don't I would hope Chad Hoyer sees it as clearly as I do, and I would hope that he is just being a dog right now trying to figure out how to get him extended. I don't the second half's a second half. PCA is an unbeliev is the best athlete I have ever seen play for the Chicago Cubs, and he's only gonna get better, so I don't give a fuck about a second half. Alright. Wish list number four, we have to upgrade starting pitching. I asked for a six-man rotation. Like if we don't sign somebody, we got trade. Then we have to go trade. We gotta trade for Joe Ryan, or we're gonna trade, we gotta trade for somebody that upgrades the starting pitching. I'm not talking about bringing in, you know, another version of Colin Ray. I'm talking about upgrading, raising the standard. That's number four on the list. Number five, this is just a quick one, and I don't like to get political. There's not there's nothing I have to offer uh on the matter. I will say number five wish list is it uh Matt Shaw. Please, for the for my own mental health and for for a lot of people's, I should say, um, just save political speaking engagements for retirement. We have plenty of time, you have plenty of time to address a crowd on beliefs and values and stuff. People just can't handle this discourse of him, Matt Shaw's at the turning point USA, the Charlie Kirk was on the graphic, and people were just going absolutely crazy about it. Like, who the fuck's this guy think he is? People did not, a lot of people didn't like it. It's a very political topic. Um, you know, it would be it would be crazy if like Aaron Judge was speaking at this thing. And I'm not just saying, like, it'd be who's the best player in baseball? Who's the best American-born player right now? It's Aaron Judge. No, Bobby Witt's gonna go talk at the thing. Like, like the best, it would be crazy if one of the best guys was we're talking about a guy, you got sent down last year. I know I mean it this shouldn't matter. You know, and your friends, and I get that stuff. I get it. Leaving the bereavement stuff this past year. I didn't have a problem with that at all. Your friend gets killed. Like anybody who had a problem with that, I have a problem with, I should say. Stronger. I should be stronger about this. I have a problem with the people who had a problem about Matt Shaw leaving the Cubs to go to the funeral. You know, that's fucking he the it's your friend. Your friend. Like if your close friend died, you get the day off work, you can go to the funeral, you can be with the family, you can go do whatever it is that, however, whatever it is for for whatever you need, it's your friend. But like if we're gonna say now take it a step further, offseason speak engagement with a graphic for Cubs fans to get all worked up about black people worked up. Take it personally, I'm saying save it for retirement because I just you play for us. Like I'm interested in you play for us, you get paid to play for us. This isn't a this is not necessarily a position playing third base for the Chicago Cubs where like you can be what are you doing in the offseason political activity? You know, like Chris Bryant was baking cookies with Jess. In the Arizzo was going to hospitals and talking to kids with cancer, you know. So like that stuff, that's where, and I'm not saying as a this is not my personal advice, my personal advice is do whatever the fuck you want to do. That goes for everybody list of this, anybody anywhere. So, like Matt Shaw, you want to come back and say, Carl, I'll do whatever the fuck I want to do, I get it. But just for my wish list, my own personal space, you know, I'm on Twitter. I'm in the discourse, I'm talking about, I'm I'm following what's going on with the Cubs. This will be a huge story, pal. This won't go away now. This is just gonna be huge. And like, even if Matt Shaw is awesome, there's gonna be people who want to trade him. And even if Matt Shaw and then Matt Shaw blows, there's gonna be people who are like, this is what you fucking get. There's gonna be people who take this and use it against him. And my personal thing is do whatever you want to do. But as a Cubs fan, as somebody who cares, a steward, I should say, of the Chicago Cubs fan experience. My advice to Matt Shaw, you know, retirement is a great time to do shit that gets people pissed off. Like right now, not a great time. You know, you already pissed a lot of people off because you had a 340 slug, you bum. Second half elite, 522 slug, the best player in the Cubs lineup in the second half. Yeah, we got we got we got some we got shit to do, buddy. We got shit to do. Get in the cage. You know, again, but do it at personal, do whatever you want to do. My my professional side of this, the the like, but if you want my advice, you obviously do whatever you want to do. But if you wanted my advice, you know, there's a lot of people who don't can't handle this. This is going on way too long. I thought I would just rifle through this and get to number six. So here's number six on the wish list. I wish the Chicago Cubs, not just in 2026, but for the next decade, are a 90-win team. Like we at least, I was thinking about this today in the morning. Maybe I was exercising, maybe my mind was working, and I was thinking, what's the lowest I will allow to say good season? 90 wins. 90 and 72 is a good season. 18 games over 500, over six months. That's a good season. Now I like by, I mean, obviously you want more, you want more, but I think we have the bones. I think we when I say the bones, I mean like obviously payroll flexibility through the roof long term. But like I love our leadership. I just love it. From the players, I love the leaders in the clubhouse. You don't, I mean, I do I have to get on my knees and blow Dansby Swanson a week before Christmas so that everybody knows how much I love the guy. I'll do it. I'll do it. I think Craig Collins, he's getting better. I think I think Jed's tirelessly the perfect person for the job, and I trust that the guys he's put around him and built like I just like the leadership, you know, our our owner, not necessarily, but um I think we have the bones where it's like no 90 wins. Like, we'll never be as bad as we were in 2021 and 22. We'll never be that again, and we should never even come even entertain that. We should be a 90-win team, period. End of story. 90 wins, 90 wins. Christmas wish list. The the lowest end of a full season of me watching a Jed Hoyer Chicago Cubs team is 90 wins. That was my sixth wish. I'll be I'll be quick here. I'll be quick here. Listen, for the fit if the Matt Shaw discourse bothers people, you gotta calm down. Like you, you if if I got people coming at me being like, fuck you, dude. You don't understand he was friends or left or right or down the middle. Anybody want to come at me about this? Blow me. Just blow me. The same way I just did, I will Dansby Swanson later. I'll show you how to do it. I'll show I will practice on Dansby and then I want you to do the same thing to me. Just be one big bunch of fucking Cubs fans sitting around. What is it? It's not a circle jerk because we're not jerking each other off. That's how I if you this is disgusting. But you understand what I'm saying. All right. Number seven on the wish list. One of our 2025 draft picks becomes a top 25 prospect in Major League Baseball. So if it's a kid from Wake Forest, so be it. If it's a kid that came after him, if it well, if it's a pitcher in the sixth round, I don't want like Zaheer Hope. Remember him? We traded, he was he's a later rounder, he wasn't a first-round draft pick. We used him to trade for Michael Bush. And Jackson Ferris, who wasn't a first-round draft pick. We use those guys to get Michael Bush. Now, like it would be sick if there's just more guys that are rising up that aren't, you know, everybody knows a first rounder. But it like, is there somebody in the class that's just gonna emerge and be awesome that we can then use and leverage either for our own good or for a big trade? That would be sick. Because again, this goes back to the reality at the top of the show. Who are we? We're a team that needs to knock it out of the park on player development. Uh, number eight, Tom Ricketts. This this this one's a little lengthy, but I think valid. Tom Ricketts sells a minor minority share of the Chicago Cubs to infuse cash into payroll so we can comfortably be in a tier under the Dodgers and the Mets, which I've talked about a lot on the show. There's a tier under the Dodgers and the Mets. Can we live in that space? And maybe am I being unfair to the Yankees, who've paid$600 million in luxury tax, I believe, since the dawn of this, since the inception of the tax. They're three right now. It's Mets, Yankees, it's Mets, Dodgers, Yankees with having an unlimited amount of money to spend. But then there's a whole tier after that. And Tom Ricketts will not, in the Ricketts family, I should say, will not put the Cubs back in that category themselves. They don't give a fuck. The machine is running, baby. They have a World Series championship and they they're comfortable. They'll go another 20 years playing 2016 montages at Wrigley Field and not think twice about it. They're already planning the 25-year anniversary. There's no pressure or emphasis at all from the Ricketts family to bring another championship to Chicago. So can we get a minority owner? Can we sell, I don't know, what's it, 5%? 5% worth of the Cubs? Somebody pay$400 million for that. Someone pay$375 million for 5% of the Chicago Cubs. They put that money up and then take that cash, service your debt, pay your payroll off your operating revenue. And if you don't understand what I'm talking about, you know, we'll be back later this offseason with the Rickets Finance show. I promise that I will deliver it. Nine on the wish list. Uh Craig Counsel gets better with Chicago Media in 2026. This is a simple one. And this is we're starting to wind the show down a little bit. You know, Merry Christmas, happy holidays to you guys. But really, I mean, I just would love to see Craig Council get like almost where we can get a peek inside a little bit more of the personality to the clubhouse and just have a little bit more fun with it. He's so down. But I shouldn't say down as much as he's just never up and he's not fun, and he's a tough follow. Joe Mann was a great follow. David Ross was a great follow. They talked passionately about the team. You know, Craig's not. I would just like to. This is my this is my wish list. As if Cubs fan, what would improve my experience in 2026 would be a manager that gave me a little bit more feeling of connected, like I'm connecting, we're in this together. But you know, we don't we don't really have that. He doesn't value that, but the the reason that that is important to Cubs fans is because we have so much to give, way more than any other fan base. We have so much to give. And so I would like him to give us a little so we can give it back to him. We can give him start start building a good relationship with Craig here and not this uncomfortable, weird energy. You know, and I hate talking about energy. I sound like your ex-girlfriend from high school, you know, she got a little bit too much into what ketamine, astrology, you know, some whatever. She took a left turn. That's who I start to sound that the energy is just these are my favorite gems. That's that is who I'm thinking of. Like, what is she? She's got she's gonna move to Iowa City, drop out, move to Cedar Rapids, you know, work at a local strip club, you know, that's popular because of a truck stop. What am I talking about here? Is that on my Christmas wish list? Is it? No, it's not. That's not. A night at a Cedar Rapids strip club. By the way, I heard Big L's in Peoria closed. So if that caught anybody off guard, that's a gentleman's club in Peoria. I got a buddy who lives in Peoria. We were talking, he said it closed. I didn't know that. So shout out Big L's, which is also not on the Christmas list. 10 last one. I just I want to have a really fun season in 2026. I want it to be fun. We were fun for a lot of time last year until like the low parts of last year were lower than like any part I can remember. The low parts last year I mean, are like the is like the Frank Schwindel era had more smiles than August and September of last year. That's the most I've ever hated a baseball team. So last year is the most I've like enjoyed a team in the first half. And then in the second half is the most the least I've enjoyed a team. And then what it ended up being was a team that I enjoyed. You know, it's a good season. It's fine. Many of you can agree with me on that. It was fine, great season. You know, kind of great. Had its moments for sure. So I would like to take it just a step forward 26. You know, clean it up a little bit consistency wise. Like, I'd rather have a worse first half if it means not going through what we did in the second half. Like, does that make sense? I'd rather spread it out. If we're gonna win 92 games, I'd rather spread it over the course of the season instead of being the best team in baseball for. Four months and then completely face planning falling off a cliff and being bottom ten in the league for the last two months. So that is you know mentally where I'm at 2026 with the wish list. And uh out of all these, what's most important is probably this last one is that we have a fun season. We have a good season, you know. Almost always it's gonna end with us losing. Almost always. But like I don't give a fuck about the playoffs in May. I care about, you know, coming home, having a nice dinner, watching the Chicago Cubs, and enjoying myself. I value a Friday where if I'm gonna spend the time at 120 to sit down and listen to the game or watch the game, then we go out, we play competitive, we have a good time. It's a fun team, it's worth your time because it's taking it's a valuable exercise for you to sit down and enjoy the product. It's good, clean baseball, you know, and they give a shit. I can get behind that. I think we can all get behind that, you know, as like the North Star of our fandom of what do we want? Because if if we're just here, it's like, you know, only if we go to the World Series or win the World Series, otherwise, fuck this, fire this guy, this sucks. Like, no, I kind of like the idea of being a good organization, and like sometimes a season, you know, it does almost always it doesn't end the way you want to. So you should probably start the season with that in your mind that like you know, as a fan, as a fan, it's it's you're we're we're probably you know, so what does it take to win a championship? You know, and it's obviously not our job to solve that equation. We have people to do that. Are we good enough? We're not that far behind the Blue Jays or the Dodgers by transitive property. You know, I focused a lot last week on the Blue Jays relationship, but we're not that far behind, or was it two weeks ago, relative to like where uh you know where we need to be to go back to the World Series. I don't think at all, at all. We have plenty of runway here. Upgrade starting pitching, continue to add the bullpen, you know, hit it on a couple player development guys. There's room to make a trade. We got a great, great farm system to operate out of. You know, like it's not ideal, it's not perfect. Kyle Schwarber's not coming home. Sorry, folks. Like it's not, you know, it's not gonna be that easy. But I like the bones of this team, and I think we're set up to have a great season. I think we're gonna, I think it's gonna be mid-June. We're gonna be having a blast. I think the trade deadline is gonna, I think we're gonna have a good showing at the all-star game. I think we're gonna fucking put a beating on this division. I think I think it's finally time that we take it back from Milwaukee. You know, I think we start to see bigger steps, I hope. At least that's why it's on the fucking wish list. So this is the Monday morning cub show, guys. This it is December 15th, 2025. We're 10 days out from Christmas. I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday. Mahoney and I are going to be back next Monday. I think we're recording on Sunday night because I've got Monday blocked off. Mrs. Carl and I have a day out together every year for Christmas. We paint the town, go out for the whole day, start at 8 a.m. Uh, and you know, come back at midnight. No one fucking cares about our Christmas traditions, but that's next Monday. So I think we're recording the show on Sunday night. I'd be interested in what your wish list is. You know, what do you wish to see the Chicago Cubs do? Um a terrible way to for me to close for me to close with Ben and otherwise passionate show. Oh, five stars. If you guys have a chance, please just throw in five star, order yourself some Thirsty Vacarol from Amazon. And of course, don't forget the promo code for sturkfamilyfarms.com, which is MMCS for 20% off. This isn't the Monday Morning Cubs show. We'll be back next Monday. In the meantime, share the show. Have a good week. Uh, and and obviously go Cubs. I love you guys. I'll see you next week.