When the current Cubs front office took over in the 2011-2012 off-season, they told the fan base that they wanted to build \u201csustained success\u201d through \u201cposition redundancy\u201d in their minor league system. And it worked, sort of, as the Cubs won a World Series for the first time in 108 years back in 2016. But the Cubs then subtly shifted their focus to a \u201cwin now\u201d mode rather than shifting back to the primary focus of sustained success after reaching their goal. In order to maintain a \u201ccompetitive window,” the Cubs<\/a> have essentially frozen out their minor-leaguers from their major league roster, save a couple of former first-round picks. Instead of supplying a pipeline of talent, the Cubs<\/a> minor league system essentially became a vault they simply raided from time to time in order to acquire major league players.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it was no surprise for a few observers that with one of the most talented rosters in baseball, the 2018 Cubs<\/a> wheezed and coughed their way through the second half of the season and put up only token resistance in the post-season. With a full season minor league system in shambles, the Cubs<\/a> had no reserves to call on to bring a spark to the big-league club.<\/p>\n However, the Cubs<\/a> front office had one of the deepest drafts of their tenure in 2018, begging several questions for 2019, the first being, are the Cubs<\/a> interested in developing more than just their high round draft picks? Next, are the Cubs<\/a> willing to promote some of their college-experienced picks to fill gaps in the upper levels of their system? But most importantly, is the Cubs<\/a> front office capable of keeping their hands off their minor league players as trade-bait in order for the system to regenerate?<\/p>\n