The Chicago Cubs' 2026 season came to an abrupt end. 

The Cubs were swept by the San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card Round. They had a disappointing postseason showing and were forced out of the playoffs after just two games. That early exit was not what the team expected. 

A lot went wrong for the Cubs during the 2026 season, which led to their early exit. These three players were the biggest disappointments this year. 

The Cubs made a big move this past offseason to trade away their top prospect (Owen Caissie) in exchange for a pitcher that the team envisioned as a top-of-the-line starting pitcher (Edward Cabrera). However, Cabrera did not live up to that status in Year 1 in Chicago. 

Cabrera had a 5.96 ERA and a 1.488 WHIP across 80 innings pitched. He finished the year with a -1.4 WAR and landed on the injured list three separate times. The right-hander had two stints on the IL with a blister issue and another stint on the IL due to a hamstring strain. 

Instead of being that frontline starter that the Cubs were hoping to get, Cabrera was a liability in their rotation for most of the year. He was eventually moved to the bullpen after coming back from a blister issue in September and didn’t even make the postseason roster. 

President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer doesn’t like to give relievers multi-year deals. Since Hoyer took over that role in November of 2020, he has never given a reliever a multi-year contract in free agency. That was finally broken when the front office gave Phil Maton a two-year, $14.5 million contract this past offseason. 

Well, that didn’t exactly work out for the Cubs. 

Maton had a 6.18 ERA and a 1.807 WHIP across 27 ⅔ innings pitched. He wasn't the same pitcher he was last year, when he had a 2.79 ERA and 1.060 WHIP in 61 ⅓ innings. His numbers were down across the board, and the veteran missed the last 2 ½ months of the season with a knee injury. 

It definitely wasn’t Ian Happ’s best season. After finishing with at least a 3.5 WAR in four straight years from 2022 to 2025, Happ failed to reach that mark in 2026. The 32-year-old finished with only a 2.9 WAR this season. 

A large part of that below-average season was because of Happ’s offensive numbers. His .218/.326/.412 was the worst of his career, and his 189 strikeouts were the most of his 10-year career. 

Happ’s poor season was disappointing on so many levels. While he did hit 24 home runs, his low batting average and high strikeout rate were major concerns throughout the entire season.