So, the Cubs didn't sign Dylan Cease. And it sure looks like they won't re-sign Kyle Tucker. Still, as the guys reconvene for the first time since the end of September, it's only fair to note: Jed Hoyer actually does something pretty interesting every winter. We talk about that, and about who's on the top of our wishlists, as the Winter Meetings get set to begin.

We still exist! The pod went on a season-long hiatus, but on the eve of the Cubs' first meaningful playoff games since 2017, we're back with a vengeance, baby. Salacious Cade Horton gossip, tons and tons of thoughts on the season just past, and the heat of the hatred between Craig Counsell and Oli Marmol color the discussion—but we also provide a substantial, in-depth preview of the 2025 NL Wild Card round between the Cubs and Padres. Join the fun!

The gang discusses the tenuous Chicago Cubs offseason, the hopes and fears that fit within it, and the passing of Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker. Then things get weird.

Three-legged, the gang does their best to talk Cubs during a lull in the offseason. With the team awash in options for upgrading the pitching staff, we discuss the discomfort of knowing they'll do something fairly big, but not being able to evaluate their smaller moves without the context of the bigger one still in the offing. Then, we throw it way back for the Random Cub of the Week, start to wind down the show—and then get deep into questions of Cubs history and the price paid to win the 2016 World Series, in real and intangible terms.

The gang convenes for a pre-holiday podcast to discuss the Cody Bellinger trade, the ways the Cubs might spend the money they saved by sending him to the Yankees, and what this roster still needs most. They also gab about the big news of the week, whereby Sammy Sosa has been re-enfolded into the community of Cubdom—if only a little half-heartedly, and under some external pressures.

The gang convenes for a semi-emergency pod, to talk about the very exciting Kyle Tucker trade; why the partner deal sending out Cody Bellinger is necessary and forthcoming, but why it has not already happened; the next big move the team might make this week; and then OMG YOU HAVE TO HEAR THE END WHERE WE TALK ABOUT GAGE WORKMAN!

The gang convenes to discuss the MLB Winter Meetings, and all the huge doings and comings and goings and movings and shakings and LOL you know the real state of things.

Discussed closely herein, though, are the Juan Soto deal with the Mets; the Cubs' involvement in trade negotiations for Garrett Crochet and Kyle Tucker; and the complicated path the team has chosen over the simple but expensive option of spending big in free agency. Then, we close with the Random Cub of the Week.

The gang discusses the arrival of Eli Morgan and Matt Thaiss, the departure of Patrick Wisdom and Trey WIngenter, how the Cubs seem to be setting themselves up for the offseason, whether they would really trade Cody Bellinger, and why the Bears have to Bears so hard all the time. PLUS! A Random Cub of the Week!

The guys welcome special World Series correspondent Sorkin Trueblood for a guest appearance to open the podcast, then pivot into a lengthy discussion of the many good options available to the Cubs this winter—and the ones they seem to have already foreclosed upon. Included:

The gang breaks down the relentless inconsistency of the Cubs on the field, and the maddeningly obvious, unsolvable problem they face off the field: an ownership group that refuses to spend the missing $60 million that would make this team more competitive while they try to build up from within. They go over all kinds of options for the Cubs in free agency and elsewhere going into the winter, and lament the rising prices that reflect just how little owners care about fans in the modern sports transaction.

As dreary as all that sounds, it's fun! Check it out.