The Chicago Cubs will enter the 2017 season as marked men, looking to undertake the uphill battle that is repeating as World Series champions.
Just three times in the last 30 years has a team managed to win consecutive titles, as the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000 and the Toronto Blue Jays won it all in 1992 and 1993.
The Cubs have the talent to join that exclusive club.
Even with the departures of Dexter Fowler, Aroldis Chapman, Jason Hammel, Jorge Soler, Travis Wood and a handful of others, it's hard to find a hole in the roster without nitpicking.
Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo will once again anchor a dynamic young offense, while the trio of Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks atop the rotation stacks up to any staff in baseball.
The bullpen lost one of the game's best closers in Chapman and replaced him with another in Wade Davis, and the relief corps as a whole looks deeper than it did a year ago.
To put it simply, all signs point to another exciting season of baseball on the North Side.
Spring training is now roughly a month away, with pitchers and catcher set to report on Feb. 14 and the first full-squad workout scheduled for Feb. 18.
As we come down the homestretch of another long, cold offseason, ahead is a full preview of what to watch for out of Cubs camp this spring.
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