The bad luck Chicago Cubs: A team of destiny or victims of circumstance?

“It’s new pain,” Crow-Armstrong told reporters after the frustrating 2-1 loss to the Nationals at Wrigley Field. “There’s definitely [stuff] that’s hurt worse, but this hurts. And the legs are just funny. That’s kind of how I help the cause on a daily basis, is with my legs. It was a good stinger, for sure.”

When it comes to Tucker, manager Craig Counsell is reporting some progress on the calf injury and feels that a stint on the IL wouldn’t be necessary.

“That’s what we’re dealing with is we think we have time to let this heal without putting him on the injured list,” Counsell said. “We think he’ll be ready before what an injured list [stint] would cost him. And we also, with having the extra player in September, feel like we’re not playing short, really. Don’t feel like, from a roster perspective, it hurts us at all.”

In the meantime, though, the Cubs will have to make do without two of their starting outfielders and, arguably, their two primary offensive assets.

The bad luck Chicago Cubs

If you’ve been following Chicago’s season even semi-closely, this latest double dose of bad news falls right into the pattern of Cubs 2025 bad luck.

Here are just some of the lowlights:

• They lost their ace Justin Steele in early April with an elbow injury, just four starts into his season. He’ll be out of commission until about mid-2026 at the absolute earliest.
• About a month later, they lost co-ace Shota Imanaga to a hamstring injury for close to two months.
• Workhorse starter Jameson Taillon has now had two separate stints on the IL, missing more than two months of the season.
• Starter Javier Assad suffered two oblique injuries in spring training that kept him down until August 12.
• Trade deadline pitching acquisition Michael Soroka only managed to last two innings in his first start as a Cub before going down with a shoulder strain.
• Kyle Tucker suffered a hairline fracture in his hand in June, which spiraled into a mechanical hiccup and led to a career-worst extended slump that lasted nearly two months.
• Tucker’s decline coincided with an almost team-wide slump that saw Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, and Michael Busch all settle into a funk.
• Catcher Miguel Amaya, after having a breakthrough first half of the season, went down with an oblique injury that cost him almost three months. One game into his return, he suffered a freak accident hustling to first base and may be out for the rest of the season with a severe ankle sprain.

A team of destiny or despair?

It’s just been one of those seasons. And the recent Tucker and PCA setbacks fall right into that pattern of tough luck.

But, even with all the bad mojo floating around, the Cubs have still have the fifth best record in all the majors and are a lock to make the playoffs, likely as the NL Wild Card top seed.

So, what does that say about this 2025 team? Are they a potentially great team hobbled by misfortune or are they a very good team rising above the bad luck?

If you ask the Cubs, themselves, they’ll proudly talk up their resilience as a unit and their confidence in the team as a whole.

“We all go through hard times,” pitcher Matthew Boyd said, back when Tucker was at the height of his offensive struggles. “But that’s why there’s 26 of us in there. We pick each other up.”