Paul Sullivan: Cubs aren't thinking about the Padres yet -- but everyone else is

CHICAGO — No one on the Chicago Cubs is thinking yet about the San Diego Padres.

It wouldn’t be prudent, of course, even though the Cubs’ wild-card-series opponent has been apparent for a while and was made official Thursday afternoon when the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the National League West.

There’s still that one little thing on the Cubs’ to-do list — clinching home-field advantage in the wild-card series so all games in the best-of-three matchup are played at Wrigley Field.

So naturally I asked Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson before Thursday’s series finale against the New York Mets if he was thinking about the Padres, knowing he definitely was not.

“No, and it’s not because you’re not worried about them,” Swanson, 31, said. “They’re a great team and have a lot of great players. They can pitch, they can beat you in a bunch of different ways. But this team, this group, almost to a fault, its biggest strength and also its biggest weakness is very much (focusing on) the now and what’s right in front of us.”

Fortunately, we’re already thinking about the Padres, the team that battled the Dodgers for the NL West crown until the final days of the season and an organization that went all in at the trade deadline, acquiring Athletics closer Mason Miller for a package that featured shortstop Leo De Vries, the No. 3 prospect in the game according to MLB Pipeline.

Miller, who leads the majors with 14.9 strikeouts per nine innings, made an already-strong bullpen that much more lethal. And with bullpen usage magnified in the postseason, the Padres should have a significant advantage over the Cubs with their top-ranked relief corps. The Padres bullpen leads the majors with a 3.05 ERA and 48 saves while ranking fifth with 9.46 strikeouts per nine innings. The Cubs bullpen ranks 12th with a 3.82 ERA, ninth with 43 saves and 22nd with 8.41 strikeouts per nine.

The Cubs know this, and of course they know the Padres lineup includes two of the best right-handed sluggers in the game in Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. In fact, there’s really not much they don’t know about San Diego. They probably could tell you the best place to get fish tacos. Baseball players consume baseball like the rest of us.

“You’re always aware,” Swanson said. “People that say they aren’t are lying. So you’re always aware, but you just aren’t consumed by it.”

Manager Craig Counsell said he knows his rotation but isn’t going to announce it until he’s forced to next week. Rookie Cade Horton’s uncertainty because of a back injury could complicate matters, though Horton is scheduled to throw Friday to see if he’ll be ready.

Counsell met with the front office Thursday about the postseason roster, which is fluid for now.

“We’re at this phase where we’re starting to put plans in place,” he said. “But we’re going to have multiple ones. We have four baseball games (left), which can affect things.”

The Cubs went 3-3 against the Padres, beating them 3-1 in the home opener at Wrigley Field on April 4 and ending the season series with a 4-2 loss on April 16th at Petco Park, the 21st game of the 2025 season.

It will be nearly 5 1/2 months since their last meeting, and though most of the regulars are the same, the journeys both teams went through to get here makes them very different from what they were in April. Wrigley Field, where the Cubs hope to play the wild-card series, is also a different place with ivy on the walls and temperatures forecast in the 60s and low 70s for next week.

Though he has more postseason experience — 37 games — than most of his teammates, Swanson said he probably wouldn’t talk to the team before the playoffs begin.

“I’m not much of a team addresser,” he said. “That’s not really my thing. … At some point I’m sure there will be a conversation. There are things I’ve done in the past, but I won’t say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going to happen.’ ”

An hour later, Cubs players gathered together in a circle on the infield after the team went over some defensive plays like a spring training workout. Swanson then spoke to the team before they broke up and headed to the clubhouse.

So what gives?

“We’re putting in trick plays to throw off the opponent,” Counsell cracked.

Counsell later said he asked the players if they had any questions after the refresher course, and Swanson spoke up.

“Dansby took it over, which is great, and he very adeptly explained one of the trick plays we instituted, and explained it to all the pitchers,” he said. “Did a really good job. He was a good teacher.”

Counsell obviously is already in postseason form. His experience getting the small-market Milwaukee Brewers into the postseason was one of the reasons President Jed Hoyer gave him the five-year, $40 million deal to replace David Ross.

Counsell, who will be matched up against Padres manager Mike Shildt, said postseason experience doesn’t always make a difference for players. The history of the playoffs shows heroes often emerge from out of nowhere, which Counsell said is “what’s cool about baseball.”

“That happens very often in the playoffs,” he said, adding: “I don’t think experience is the (be-all and) end-all to this. There are spots where it certainly helps. But there also are players, not necessarily the Cubs, but we’re going to see some of this in the playoffs — some young players that do amazing things.”

Counsell managed in five postseasons with the Brewers, going 7-12. They lost to the Dodgers in seven games in the 2018 National League Championship Series, then lost to the Washington Nationals in the 2019 wild-card game. They lost in three more series in ’20, ’21 and ’23, and then he shockingly left for the Cubs.

Does managerial experience matter?

“In some places it helps, and in some places no, it doesn’t,” he said. “It’s mistakes that are made, situations that happen differently, that maybe you’re ready for a little faster.”

Cubs versus Padres should be something to see, not that anyone is thinking that far ahead.

“This team is so professional every day, looking for ways to get better and play our best ball and show up for one another that you almost don’t have time to think about anything else,” Swanson said. “It’s no disrespect to them. We’re just a group very committed to one another.”