Chicago Cubs’ Michael Busch (29), Matt Shaw, center, and Pete Crow-Armstrong celebrate their runs … More scored against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fifth inning of an opening-day baseball game Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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‘Tis the season for overly grandiose proclamations, and the risk of making too much of one game runs high, but because opening day gives us the first real look at all thirty teams around the league, it’s hard to resist.

The Cubs already have two regular season games under their belt – they lost both of their contests in Tokyo against the Dodgers – but now that they are back in the United States, they put together a win over the Diamondbacks on Thursday night that displayed all the ingredients for a division winner.

They weren’t perfect; Justin Steele gave up three runs on six hits and a walk in five innings, and relievers Nate Pearson and Ryan Pressly gave up runs.

But those were the only flaws in the Cubs’ game on Thursday night. Otherwise, they put together everything they will need this season to win their first division title since 2017. The rest of the bullpen limited the Diamondbacks to just one baserunner. On offense, leadoff man Ian Happ reached base three times (including a solo home run in the fourth inning), and three other Cubs batters had multiple hits, including bottom-of-the-order bat Miguel Amaya, who drove in five runs.

Defensively, the Cubs were solid, and Pete Crow-Armstrong notched his first stolen base of the season, something he is expected to do frequently in 2025.

“That’s what we want,” Amaya told reporters after Thursday’s game. “Every time we take advantage of those little things – running the bases in the right way, taking good at-bats, putting the ball in play – we’re going to win a lot of ballgames.”

That’s the expectation for the Cubs. They launched a rebuild at the 2021 trade deadline and have slowly shown promise that things are on the upswing. The Cubs just missed a wild card spot in 2023 and posted their second consecutive winning season last year. Still, back-to-back 83-win seasons haven’t exactly had Cubs fans fired up in a good way, and understandably so. The bar for this team is higher, and too often team ownership seems to throw cold water on any burgeoning enthusiasm.

For example, in January team chairman Tom Ricketts said his goal is for the Cubs to “break even”, a comment probably meant to communicate that he is not trying to line his pockets on the back of the franchise, but it came across to fans like someone who isn’t interested in taking the extra steps to field a truly competitive ballclub.

But it’s possible the group he does have taking the field in 2025 has some of the right things necessary to winning the National League Central. They have quality veteran depth and a good group of young players like Crow-Armstrong and rookie third baseman Matt Shaw, and the additions the Cubs did make this offseason have improved the team, at least on paper.

And then on top of that, there’s the intangible component fostered by a team that might have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder because of the disappointing finishes of the last two seasons.

“I really like this group of players,” team president Jed Hoyer told reporters Thursday. “I think they generally feel like we left some meat on the bone the last couple years, and I think they’re pretty hungry for this year.”

The Cubs are starting the 2025 season with just over $30 million in tax space, according to Spotrac. One of the things that drew ire from fans during the offseason was a perceived lack of investment in the roster.

They did bring in several arms to bolster the pitching depth, and they traded for Kyle Tucker in December, who should provide much-needed power from the left side of the plate. He had a quiet spring training and is off to a bit of a slow start through the first three games of the season, but Tucker’s track record speaks for itself. The trouble with Tucker is that this is the last year of his contract before he is set to be an unrestricted free agent, so the Cubs might end up enjoying his services for just one season. Tucker has expressed a desire to test the free agent market in the winter, and a contract extension for him would be costly.

But having Tucker for just the 2025 season still goes a long way toward putting the Cubs in the right position to at least contend for a division title. The full course of the season will bring natural ups and downs, and the Cubs have a very tough schedule throughout April and into the beginning of May. With that in mind, if they reach mid-May sitting at around .500, that’s not a bad thing. They will have run through a gauntlet by that point, and their schedule softens right around Mother’s Day.

The right ingredients are there for the Cubs to be division winners in 2025, but time will tell whether they can realize that potential.