Although Las Vegas’s win totals are about balancing bets and aren’t always a perfect reflection of reality, they do offer a money-on-the-line perspective on each of MLB’s teams as they stand today.
Thus, I always find these kinds of preseason totals an interesting check-in:
Here's the complete 2020 MLB season win total rundown from @CaesarsEnt: pic.twitter.com/u0dyB0FN88
— Joe Fortenbaugh (@JoeFortenbaugh) January 15, 2020
In the National League, the Cubs’ 86 wins (two more than last year, woo!) would be behind the Dodgers (99), Braves (92), Nationals (89.5), Cardinals (88.5), and Mets (86.5).
Given that the Cubs have not only not added meaningfully to their roster, but also saw the exits of Cole Hamels, Nick Castellanos, Brandon Kintzler, Steve Cishek, Ben Zobrist, Pedro Strop and others, it’s pretty hard to take on-paper umbrage at 86 wins for the Cubs right now. They have the positional talent to win quite a bit more than that if everything clicks for guys up and down the lineup (and they stay healthy), but it’s impossible to deny the big questions in the second half of the rotation and in the bullpen.
I actually tend to think the 2020 Cubs won’t finish with anything particularly close to 86 wins. Either they’re going to be hot out of the gate and force the front office to supplement at the Trade Deadline, presumably pushing them toward 90 wins, or they’re going to meander around .500 (or worse) in the first half, in which case I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the team sell off a little bit with an eye on 2021, driving the wins down closer to 80 or below when all is said and done.