The Midwest League Playoffs have arrived! It’s time to get it going, as the Cubs at last get to the point that they have been thinking about since June 13 when they clinched their spot in the postseason. History is on the line in the next week-and-a-half, as the Cubs search for the team’s third championship in the last seven seasons.
South Bend Cubs fans know exactly what these kinds of rides are like when you get to mid-September in the Midwest League. The next set of games are going to be the biggest roller coasters of the season, with big time twists, turns, highs, lows coming. Along with plenty of moments that make your palms sweat and make you lean up in your chair.
But that’s exactly what you play for. The opportunity at another ring, the chance to do something extremely special with your best friends that you have gone to battle with everyday since the start of April. And that’s only official games. All of these guys have been grinding and going and working their tails off since mid-February. The opportunity now to do something that all of us will remember for the rest of our lives is right in front of us, and this team is ready.
Up first, the 2026 Midwest League West Division Series. The opponent: Quad Cities River Bandits. The High-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals has done their fair share of winning over the last number of years, as QC won the then High-A Central Championship back in 2021. Quad Cities had an outstanding second-half, and were the only Midwest League team in half number-two to win 40 games. They got to 40 on the dot, and went 22-9 at Modern Woodmen Park.
It will be Modern Woodmen Park Tuesday night where the Cubs open the postseason. This is the first time in the South Bend Cubs championship era (winning both in 2019 and 2022) that game one of the postseason will be on the road. And it is a crucial game one. If the Cubs can win on Tuesday, they will come back home Thursday night with a chance to win the series on their home turf, in front of what is going to be a raucous crowd on Thursday night in Downtown South Bend. But you have to focus on one game at a time, and Quad Cities is absolutely going to give the Cubs their best shot on Tuesday, knowing that this is their only guaranteed home playoff game.
Even though the River Bandits had the best record in the second-half, the Cubs earned the Midwest League’s best regular season record. South Bend finished the year with a 77-51 mark, the best in the Midwest. South Bend was also the only team in the Midwest League this season that won 40-plus games at home, finishing with 41 victories at Four Winds Field.
South Bend owns a regular season record over Quad Cities at 8-4. The Cubs were in Davenport once this season in early June, then the River Bandits came to Four Winds Field in late June. If you’re talking Tuesday’s specifically, the Cubs won both Tuesday games over Quad Cities. One of the highlight wins over the Bandits came on June 6 in Davenport, as the Cubs crushed QQC 13-2. Will Sanders started that game on a rehab assignment, and as expected, with the game being that early in the season, there has been some serious roster turnover. Josiah Hartshorn and Justin Stransky are the only two Cubs to have played in that game still not he roster, but they both had base hits and RBI, including a three-hit game for Hartshorn with a home run and three RBI.
Then from June 23-28 at Four Winds Field, in the first few days of the second-half, South Bend took four of six games from QC. That included another Saturday night domination, 11-1 over the Bandits. The current South Bend middle-infield tandem of Angel Cepeda and Jose Escobar led the way that night, with Cepeda going 2/3 with three runs, two RBI, and two walks. Escobar launched a home run, going 3/4 with three RBI and a walk. Both Cepeda and Escobar are going to be heavily relied on this coming week in the first round.
Quad Cities had an outstanding second-half, and have been led by some of the Kansas City Royals top prospects. Royals number one prospect, right-handed pitcher Kendry Chourio, is just 18-years-old. But his age is not a negative to his work on the mound. He pitches like a 23-year-old. Chourio has lethal stuff, and pitched once against the Cubs back in June. David Shield is the Royals number-four prospect. He’s a lefty, and has some impeccable strikeout numbers. He has punched out 139 batters in 116.2 innings. The QC pitching staff is led by head pitching coach Derrick Lewis, who was an original Myrtle Beach Pelican in their first year of existence. Former South Bend Cubs pitching coach Clayton Mortensen (2023 South Bend Cubs) is the assistant pitching coach in QC. Morty is one of the best in the business, and it will be fun to compete against him.
At the plate, number-five Royals prospect Blake Mitchell is a former Kansas City first-round pick. A power-hitting catcher, Mitchell has had a big year with 23 homers and 75 RBI. He is prone to the strikeout, with 174 of them in 381 at-bats.
We have said this a lot on South Bend Cubs radio the last few weeks. In a playoff setting like the Midwest League, where there are just four total teams, you are not going to get by in a playoff setting like this by getting lucky by playing a bad team. That is just not going to happen. Everyone that is in this postseason is not just good, they’re elite. So that’s why this is the true best of the best. Winning a Midwest League Championship is an honor, not just because of the title itself, but because this playoff style is a gauntlet.
In 2019, back when the playoffs were three rounds, which an extra team making the playoffs in each half when this was a Low-A league, it was even tougher. The late Buddy Bailey led South Bend to its first MWL title as a Chicago Cubs affiliate. In 2022, South Bend had to get by a really tough Cedar Rapids team in the first-round, and then beat a high-level MLB prospect loaded Lake County squad in the championship. Lance Rymel skipped the Cubs to that one. Now, it’s Daniel Wasinger’s turn. Wasi has this group ready to go, and it’s time to shine
Players to watch on South Bend…
Josiah Hartshorn, 1B/OF: Having been placed recently at the top of the South Bend Cubs lineup, Josiah Hartshorn has used the lead-off spot to make South Bend Cubs history in recent weeks. He has the South Bend Cubs record (since 2015) for the most home runs and the most RBI in a South Bend uniform. 110 regular season RBI combined between Low-A and High-A, and 85 of them came in a Cubs uniform. In just 83 games. His 18 South Bend homers leapfrogged the record of 15 set by Jordan Nwogu and Yonathan Perlaza. And you would imagine Hartshorn is going to hold each record for quite a while, considering the RBI record stood from 2016 from a guy named Eloy Jimenez. The playoffs are a team journey. One guy is not going to win you a Midwest League Championship. Just like Brennen Davis didn’t do it on his own in 2019, and Pete Crow-Armstrong didn’t in 2022. Both of those guys provided incredible moments, helping the Cubs get to the dream of celebrating a championship, but they needed everyone around them to also get it done. Hartshorn is going to have some big swings in the next 10 days. But he’s going to need his teammates too. That’s what makes this current group special. It’s a close-knit clubhouse, and the guys are all focused on one common goal. Winning.
Angel Cepeda, SS: What an end to the season that Angel Cepeda had. He finished his final regular season Midwest League series by going 10/20 against Quad Cities with two home runs (a multi-homer game last Tuesday) and seven RBI, along with seven runs. Cepeda flipped the switch to maximum overdrive and stayed on that pace for a matter of weeks to end the season. Remember, Angel was South Bend’s opening day shortstop back in April. An unfortunate first-week injury in Peoria kept him out for a matter of months, and he returned in mid-June. Just looking at what has happened since that point, Cepeda’s healthy return has made a huge difference. Considering that South Bend infielder Ty Southisene was traded at the deadline, that left a hole at the shortstop position for South Bend, which has been filled by the outstanding play of Cepeda. He hit six home runs in the month of August, and the power stroke carried into September, has he mashed a pair of multi-homer games in a matter of six days. Cepeda’s .500 batting average last series has him cooking with lighter fluid heading into the playoffs. Everything that this guy hit last week was hit hard. And he continues to back up his at-bat’s with terrific defense in the field. At just 20-years-old, Cepeda is a serious prospect. He is a top-30 Cubs prospect, but for whatever reason does not get talked about enough. That should definitely change, and especially if he comes out swinging in the postseason.
Jostin Florentino, RHP: There is no higher Chicago Cubs pitching prospect on the South Bend Cubs roster than Jostin Florentino. The kid with the vicious sweeper has shined in South Bend since making his Midwest League debut in late April, and after figuring out this level over a few weeks, Florentino has been cooking on the mound over the last couple months. The 2025 Chicago Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year is going to be needed to set the tone in a start at some point in the first round. The Cubs are still figuring out exactly what they want to do with the rotation, but Florentino surely is going to be one of the guys the Cubs need to give them innings and give them zeroes. ‘Flo’ pitched against Quad Cities twice in 2026, struggling at Modern Woodmen Park on June 5, going just a single inning. But he rebounded as well as you can on June 24 at Four Winds Field with 4.0 shutout frames, along with seven strikeouts. That was the start where Florentino really imprinted his style here in South Bend. The right-hander had five straight starts of six strikeouts or more right in the middle of that stretch, and had two of his best High-A starts in August. None were better than what we saw against Cedar Rapids on August 4, where he earned the win in 5.0 shutout frames. Against West Michigan on August 18, he went 5.0 innings again, and gave up just a run with seven K’s.
Schedule and Probables…
Game 1: Tuesday, September 8 - 7:30 PM ET: RHP Jostin Florentino vs LHP David Shields
Game 2: Thursday, September 10 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Nazier Mulé vs RHP Kendry Chourio
Game 3 (if necessary): Friday, September 11 - TBA vs TBA
Catch the entirety of the Midwest League West Division Series this week on 96.1 FM and 960 AM Sports Radio WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Brendan King and Tyler Reidy on the call.