Hello BCBers, another substitute author for Cub Tracks, hoping you’ll bear with me for a handful of days this week! As you might imagine, the first days of November aren’t always flush with news stories, but we’ve got some Cub updates below (some that you might already know from visiting the site this week). Let’s just get right into it!
- Just as expected, Pete Crow-Armstrong is a finalist (and many would argue a frontrunner) for the NL MVP award.
- The Cubs have agreed to a one-year contract with right-handed pitcher Jacob Webb. Webb had a decent season with the Cubs in 2026, with a 3.36 ERA out of the bullpen, and appearing in 68 games.
They’ve also claimed pitcher Eric Orze off of waivers. Orze, who most recently pitched for the Minnesota Twins, is a bit more of a gamble. He had a 5.66 ERA in 2026 with 36 appearances. He only has three years of major league experience, so it should be interesting to see what he brings to the Cubs’ bullpen.
- Seiya Suzuki is one of eight major league players to receive a one-year qualifying offer worth $23.15 million. He joins prominent names like Randy Arozarena and Jake Bauers, but of course an offer is no guarantee of an acceptance. In fact, every year more qualifying offers are rejected than accepted. Last season, of the 13 offers extended, only four were accepted. And with only eight offers extended this season, it will be interesting to see if Seiya or the others accept. Typically, players want to try their luck on the free agent market, and the four offers accepted last season were actually an all-time high since 2012. Usually, very few, or none of the offers are accepted. Time will tell!
- According to Jeff Passan, the Cubs are one of four teams that are openly expressing interest in signing free agent pitching superstar Tarik Skubal. The Cubs badly need starting pitching, and who would be better to bolster their rotation than one of the best pitchers in the entire sport? Sadly, Passan elaborates, saying, “The Chicago Cubs badly want Skubal. They also are skeptical that they will be willing to compete at the sort of dollars Skubal is expected to get — well in excess of $300 million, potentially in the $400 million-plus range.” So don’t get your hopes too high on seeing Skubal in Chicago next season.
Food For Thought:
The end of October marks the end of one of my favorite online trends that has happened every year for the past (I believe) seven years. A content creator named Geo Rutherford, who started out on TikTok but has since branched out to multiple platforms, puts out her yearly “Spooky Lakes Month” video series. For each day of the month of October, she spotlights a different natural phenomenon based around water, or as she puts it, “haunted hydrology.” More than just lakes get the focus, as she teaches viewers about natural disasters, interesting places, and fascinating stories related to nature—or what happens when humans try to control nature.
Rutherford is also an artist and a writer, and has used her Spooky Lakes Month series to release two educational books: Spooky Lakes and Spooky Rivers, as well as coloring books and more. Her videos are fun and informative, and each one begins with her signature greeting of “Um, yes, hello.” It has become something her regular viewers and fans look forward to every year.
If you’ve never had a chance to enjoy Geo’s irreverent videos, I’ll include a couple here, and she has several years worth that can be revisited on her social media pages.
