How they were built: Cubs

MLBPipeline.com is breaking down how each of the postseason teams was built, looking at the composition of projected Division Series rosters.

A year ago, the Cubs won 97 games and earned the second Wild Card spot in the National League, their first postseason appearance since 2008. That, even the organization will admit, came a bit ahead of schedule.

The 2016 season had a different feel from Day 1, with expectations set much higher. An improvement on last year’s regular-season finish — a division title — would suffice, and going further than the club did in October a year ago — World Series or bust — was demanded.

Overview The architects NATIONAL LEAGUE Chicago Cubs Los Angeles Dodgers New York Mets San Francisco Giants Washington Nationals AMERICAN LEAGUE Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox Cleveland Indians Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays

The Cubs lived up to the hype during the regular season as the only team to win more than 100 games. Whether they can finish it off with the franchise’s first World Series title since 1908, its first Fall Classic appearance since 1945, remains to be seen. But the braintrust knew it had a good thing going and needed to just make some key additions to a very strong nucleus to make it a possibility.

“We always circled 2016 as the year our guys would be in the big leagues and make contributions,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “We looked at 2015 if a lot of things went right, we could compete.

“This year, because of our experience last year, we knew there was a level of expectation. Joe [Maddon] did a great job of not running away from those expectations.”

The winning percentage may not be all that different from last year to this one, but the Cubs established themselves as the class of the NL Central pretty early and never let go of that stranglehold.

“This season, our win total isn’t going to be that far away from last year, but the way we got there was a lot different,” Hoyer said. “This is a more complete team. We’ve been more consistent. I do think things like run differential make a big difference. We’ve been able to control games a lot better. We’ve proven to be very good marathoners, for sure. I’m excited to see what October brings.”

Here’s a look at how each player on the Cubs’ projected Division Series roster was initially acquired during his current stint with the club:

HOMEGROWNPlayer, how acquired, yearWillson Contreras, Int’l sign, 2009Matt Szczur, Draft, 2010 (5th round)Javier Baez, Draft, 2011 (1st round)Jorge Soler, Int’l sign, 2012Kris Bryant, Draft, 2013 (1st round)

In 2015, the arrival of Bryant received most headlines, and he went on to be a unanimous NL Rookie of the Year Award winner. He was joined by Baez and Soler as homegrown talent on last year’s postseason roster.

This …

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