Seiya Suzuki

This is not a perfect offensive team. The Cubs hit far too many groundballs. They do not hit enough home runs. Those two elements alone will keep them out of the upper echelon of run scoring this season.

But that isn’t to say that this offense is or will become ineffective.

Seiya Suzuki appears to be the real deal. And not just in a he’s-going-to-be-worth-every-penny sort of way. Adjustment period be damned, the Cubs new rightfielder has already earned NL Player of the Week honors (.412 average, 1.604 OPS, and 314 wRC+). I see no reason to doubt his abilities to remain among the top hitters in the game at this point either. His eye is phenomenal. His swing decisions, barrel control, and plate coverage are not far behind.

The Cubs lost a ton of star power last year, but part of what made the former core so valuable was their defensive prowess, versatility, base running, etc. Javier Báez’s MVP runs in 2018-19 were driven in large part because of his defense. From a purely offensive standpoint the team hadn’t received high level production (Top 5 in NL or Top 10 in MLB) from anyone since Kris Bryant in 2017.

In Suzuki, the Cubs may well have found that star level player to anchor their lineup now, and for the foreseeable future..

His emergence is not the only positive development. Ian Happ has flashed high level offensive ability in the past, but has had difficulty sustaining it for more than a month or two at a time. At least for now, he showing greater balance between his patient approach and willingness to attack pitches in hitter’s counts. He’s also showing a greater willingness to settle for solid contact when batting from the right side which should help cut down on some of the wild swings in productivity. And though Willson Contreras is not going to rank among the top hitters in the league, he can do so at his position, and so far the decision to pair him with a starting caliber backup (Yan Gomes) in order to rotate Contreras through the DH spot and not wear him out behind the plate is paying dividends.

Both Frank Schwindel and Patrick Wisdom got off to slow starts, but stuck with their approach and they began seeing returns over the past several days. The Cubs are counting on those two to provide much needed power to this lineup. It still remains in awkward situation in that the Cubs are rebuilding on the fly and those two are still unproven at 30 years old, but if they can continue to show they are viable MLB players in the first half and that their 2021 breakouts were no fluke, they provide the Cubs with the flexibility to trade them for a decent return or hold on to them as cheap place holders until the next wave of prospects arrive.

The middle infield combo of Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal have held their own defensively, and though the hits haven’t fallen for either as often as they likely will as the season progresses they have brought the expected contact ability (7 K in 60 combined PA). The two of them are big culprits in the too many grounders issue, but they are still inexperienced and also coming off injury plagued seasons. These two will be a big focus for the Cubs new hitting coaches to get them to concentrate on making contact further out in front of the plate in order to lift the ball into the air more often. Neither is going to hit many home runs, but getting more balls over the infielders heads, and into the gaps is important. Nico is already flashing more ability in that regard than in previous seasons.

It has all made for a more well-rounded group. No longer can opposing pitchers attack the Cubs lineup with a single method and stick with it throughout an inning, let alone an entire outing. These hitters have differing strengths and weaknesses, different approaches, and it should put more stress on pitchers and make them less likely to get locked in during an outing.

As for the pitching…

Surprise, surprise, but it appears the Cubs have patched together another effective bullpen group.

Despite long term injuries to key personnel (Codi Heuer and Brad Wieck) the Cubs bullpen has only lost one of the first nine games of the season. The veteran additions of David Robertson, Mychal Givens and Chris Martin have helped stabilize the final three innings along with holdover Rowan Wick. What is different this year is that home grown arms Scott Effross, Ethan Roberts, and Keegan Thompson have emerged as reliable weapons as well.

It isn’t a perfect pen, as the Cubs are still looking for left-handed options to replace Wieck. Daniel Norris has been okay thus far, and looks like a solid signing as a depth option, but he’s unproven in a late inning role.

The team recently added veteran Locke St. John to the roster, but that is a stopgap move, at best. Right handed batters will likely give him all kinds of trouble. He had an April 15th opt out of his MiLB contract, and I’m a little shocked the Cubs were scared of losing him, but at the same time maybe they see him as an extra arm they spot in certain situations throughout this month while rosters are expanded, and then send him down and even DFA him in order to free that 40-man spot for another starting option or just to try out one of the other veteran LHP options in Iowa.

Frankly, among the four main guys who began the year in Iowa (Stephen Gonsalves, Connor Menez, and Eric Stout the others), I though St. John looked the weakest. My guess is we see a lot of fluidity with that roster spot. It is also worth noting that Steven Brault was originally offered a MLB deal this spring before it became clear he wouldn’t be available to begin the year. He may be available in May, and likely was given an opt out of his MiLB as well.

I’m starting to believe that this Cubs team may have been an ace away from a legit chance at winning the NL Central.

That doesn’t mean they’d be a true World Series contender, as the strength in the NL appears to be on both coasts once again, but as they say if you can get into the playoffs anything can happen.

The starting rotation is most likely to be the Achilles Heel of this team. Marcus Stroman and Kyle Hendricks are veteran anchors who know how to get outs in this league, but neither is likely to give the Cubs a dominant run throughout the portion of a season which can help fuel and sustain winning streaks (or halt losing streaks in their tracks).

Wade Miley is another guy in that vein, but we’ll still have to wait and see how he looks when he is finally ready to begin his season. The issue with building your staff around these types of pitchers is they have very little room for error. Even minor injuries or simply beginning the year behind schedule can really muck up their results. The same concerns will fall on Alec Mills as well.

The Cubs have gotten strong early outings from lefties Justin Steele and Drew Smyly, but both are likely to remain twice through the order kind of arms (although Steele may emerge beyond those constraints). Given his age and ability to miss bats Steele should be given the opportunity to stick in the rotation and ride through any ups and downs over the course of the season.

The Cubs may be best off with Smyly eventually working into a swing role, which would simultaneously strengthen the left side of the bullpen as well. In the meantime, he’s been a life saver the first couple of times through the rotation. Without his 9.2 shutout innings the bullpen may have gotten stretched to a breaking point in that just completed four game series in Colorado.

Caleb Kilian will work his way into the mix eventually, but I doubt it happens until the weather warms and he gets on a nice run in Iowa for a while. It may not even be until around the same time that Adbert Alzolay gets back on the mound and potentially offers even another option.

In the meantime the Cubs will continue to try and mix and match between Smyly and Mark Leiter, Jr. until Miley, Mills, and Brault are ready to give it a go.

Perhaps the Cubs will give Keegan Thompson a shot as well. He offers the same type of swing and miss as Steele, but injuries and durability have been great challenge for Thompson dating all the way back to his college career. There may not be anyone throwing as well as him on the staff right now though. He is in great shape, is getting more carry on his fastball up in the zone than ever before, and his secondaries have been sharp.

Thompson (and Alzolay) put the Cubs in a tough position. It may be best for their careers for them to be coming out of the pen, but the team has more options for right handed and mult-inning relief roles than they do starters. The Cubs figure to have enough veterans getting healthy in May for them to patch together a functioning rotation, but if setbacks and/or ineffectiveness from any of those arms crops up, the Cubs may have little choice but to turn to Thompson and then Alzolay later in the year.

Regardless of who they utilize throughout the year, the odds are this team comes up a bit short of starting pitchers as they try to keep pace with the Brewers and Cardinals. The Cubs have arms coming up through the system, but Kilian is the only one with a 2022 ETA. The rest will have a chance to work their way into the rotation beginning next season. Until then, it will likely remain the limiting factor for this team.