The Chicago Cubs’ defense is the best in baseball, and it’s not particularly close. It’s winning the Cubs a lot of baseball games, and the league is starting to take notice.
Jeff Passan of ESPN was talking about the Cubs’ trade deadline on his podcast this week, when he brought up an interesting text a pitcher recently sent him regarding the North Siders’ defensive talent.
Watch what he said here:
? t.co/vv2DigphdC pic.twitter.com/YZjXAy0qE5
— Jacob Zanolla (@jacobzanolla) August 5, 2026“I heard from a pitcher earlier this week, who texted me and said, ‘Could the Cubs trade for me, please?’ And I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Have you watched that infield defense?'”
This isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s super fun to hear nonetheless! We often theorize that a great defense (or great pitching infrastructure in other ways) could be a difference-maker in, say, free agency. This is sort of direct evidence to support that. And, of course, the infield defense, in particular, is locked up for the foreseeable future.
***
Marquee Sports Network interviewed Kevin Gausman during Wednesday’s game, and he, too, shouted out the defense, expressing his excitement to pitch in front of his new team.
Although it’s especially helpful for groundball pitchers, like recent acquisition Clay Holmes, having strong defenders like Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Seiya Suzuki in the outfield helps a lot too. Everywhere you look around the diamond, the Cubs have a plus defender. Pete Crow-Armstrong is the best defender in baseball, which means he gets most of the attention (and for good reason), but it’s important to recognize the elite gloves that Hoyer has placed all around the diamond to help out his pitching staff.
Entering Wednesday, the Cubs lead the league in OAA, DRS, and FRV, and by wide margins at that. They’ve earned 55 OAA, which is 23 more than the second-place Diamondbacks. DRS-wise, the Cubs’ 84 is 19 runs better than the next highest, which is the Rays at 65. Lastly, Counsell’s ballclub has an FRV of 56, which is 27 above the Diamondbacks at 29.
Good teams have strong defenses, as we saw with the 2016 Cubs, who led the league in all of those statistics as well. Preventing runs is just as good as scoring them, but it’s better when the team can do both, which is exactly the case with this Cubs squad.
Hence then, the article about the league is taking notice of the cubs stellar defense was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The League Is Taking Notice of the Cubs’ Stellar Defense )
Also on site :