When the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, famously breaking their century-long slump, they seemed to have the roster to make a couple more runs at it. Of the position players on their roster to get at least 200 plate appearances, eight were under 30 years old, led by that year’s MVP, a 24-year old Kris Bryant.

However, that version of the Cubs didn’t come remotely close to a dynastic run. They advanced back to the NLCS the following year, lost both an NL Central tiebreaker and the NL Wild Card Game* in 2018, and have only appearance once in the postseason since then — a brief two-and-out home loss to the Marlins in the expanded playoffs in the shortened 2020 season. Most of the young pieces from that 2016 team ended up traded away, including the now-retired Anthony Rizzo to the Yan

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