Some arms got thrown into the fray that clearly didn’t belong there, some had to figure it out. Some the league figured out. The problem was that a good portion of the relief corps in 2023 was of the first quality, and some had to stay anyway.
The staff wore out. The whole team wore out. I saw a fan theory that said that they considered the stretch drive to make the Cubs a buyer rather than a seller depleted their energy to the point that they didn’t have enough by season’s end.
I don’t know if I buy that completely, but I might be interested in building a new kit from some of the parts, if you thrown in some of David Ross’ more questionable decisions and the general lack of quality arms the Cubs had on hand.