The Chicago Cubs are doing what they can to pursue another championship, including trading for Jose Quintana a couple of weeks ago. But they could never replicate the level of desperation that the organization operated with in the summer of 2016, amassed over 108 consecutive years they had failed to win the title. That urgency drove the Cubs’ front office into a transaction it probably wouldn’t consider under normal circumstances.
On the day the Cubs traded high-end prospect Gleyber Torres to the Yankees for Aroldis Chapman, Chicago was 20 games over .