We’ve hit that in-between time, when I’m not prepared to stop wearing shorts and t-shirts, but I’m starting to feel a little chilly. And yet it still seems too warm for jeans and hoodies on the regular. So I’m choosing to be cold for now.
Just one more win (or Diamondbacks loss, but that’s less fun) and the Cubs officially clinch a spot in the postseason. Shota Imanaga is expected to go tonight, with Kevin Gausman going tomorrow. There’s a TBD for now on Thursday. Tentatively, that makes it look like Gausman is expected to get game one of the playoffs for the Cubs next Tuesday (which would be the on-paper guess of most folks anyway, given his upside and experience), but they still have the ability to play with things such that literally anyone is still on the board as we sit here today. It’s a weird spot heading into these final six regular season games. We know the Cubs are in, but they haven’t clinched quite yet. We know they’re in a three-game series to start the playoffs no matter what, but we don’t know the opponent yet. We know it would be best to get the top Wild Card spot and the home games, but we don’t know if it would actually make the difference. In other words, we don’t know how absolutely critical wins are this week. We want to see the Cubs get the WC1 spot, but if you have a preferred opponent for them if they DON’T get WC1, it might actually be better to lose some games. It’s kinda hard to predict right now as we sit here what order of wins and losses will be best. … except for winning every game and guaranteeing the WC1 spot. I’m pretty confident that’s the best on-paper outcome. So just do that. And hopefully the looming weather in the Northeast doesn’t become its own weird factor in Boston. Adding to the weirdness: for the second straight year, the Cubs have suffered a freak injury to a key player on the eve of the postseason, and we don’t really know if/when he’ll be able to return. Last year, it was Cade Horton’s rib fracture, and this year, obviously, it’s Alex Bregman’s facial fractures. It just makes it a little harder to celebrate or anticipate, maybe especially after last year when we saw how much it ACTUALLY wound up burning the Cubs that they didn’t have Horton available in the NLDS. To be sure, Bregman has not yet officially been ruled out for the Wild Card round. The latest reports suggest it’s a fluid situation with the evaluation ongoing (how does it feel, can he see well, what are the risks of another incident, etc.). We can hold out hope that Bregman is able to return and is just as effective as he was before the injury. I don’t know that anyone thinks that’s the most likely path from here (frankly, I’m just relieved to learn that his vision is expected to be OK long-term), but it at least still justifies a hope. Paul Skenes is explicitly pointing to the early ramp-up-and-compete nature of the WBC as one possible factor in his struggles this season:Paul Skenes hasn't been himself. As he's looked back, he's identified "one big change" this year: the World Baseball Classic.While not the sole factor, he believes his Team USA participation may be "the root" of this year's velo drop. Only in the P-G: t.co/Uamc14ZHft
— Colin Beazley (@colin_beazley) September 21, 2026 As Skenes notes, he’s not the only pitcher who dealt with issues this season after WBC participation, and we’ve seen it here on the Cubs. The issue is not always an injury suffered in, or directly caused by, the WBC itself. Instead, the potential issue is that early ramp-up and max-effort competition at a time when a guy’s normal calendar would have him usually still stepping things up and pitching in fake games. It’s just not the same thing, and it really hasn’t ever been difficult to imagine how it could turn a guy’s arm just sideways enough that, with the grind of games throughout the year, he can’t ever quite get right. So the prospect of buying equity in an MLB franchise is so compelling right now that the league had to grant the Yankees and a private equity firm a special exemption to buy a little more than is usually allowed? If I’m in the MLBPA, this is another great data point ahead of CBA negotiations:I’ll be touching on this more shortly, but the Apollo investment in the Yankees is very significant. As just one piece of it, MLB caps private equity investment in clubs at 15%. The Apollo deal will be for 16% of the Yankees meaning the league is granting an exemption to PE cap.
— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) September 22, 2026 (I suppose the counter might be that franchise valuations are seen as such a bargain right now – because of the lack of a cap system – that the Yankees had no choice but to sell extra. But then … how is that the players’ problem? All I know is a private equity firm isn’t buying a huge chunk of the Yankees because they’re big fans of the pinstripes. It’s a business decision, with an expectation of future cash flow and equity appreciation. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, nor with a family ownership group like the Steinbrenners wanting to take some cash out. But I’m just saying, it suggests a very healthy business with a bright future.) This is what it looks like when the producer does a little performance art behind the scenes:Jason Benetti gets absolutely roasted by his own production crew with the camera cut after his Austro-Turkish War reference. ? pic.twitter.com/nXPsCi4LE7
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 21, 2026 MORE CUBS FROM BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN NewsletterHence then, the article about one more win weird week ahead bregman wbc pe and other cubs bullets 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.
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