The 2024 Cubs surged out to a 17-10 begin for the season’s first month, delivering a +20 run differential and looking out each bit like a favourite within the Nationwide League Central. The script has flipped over the previous month-plus, nonetheless, as Chicago has gone 12-19 and allowed 25 extra runs than they’ve scored within the 31 video games since. They’re now six video games again of a Brewers membership that holds a comparatively commanding lead within the division.
Fortunately for the Cubs – and lots of different non-division leaders within the Nationwide League – the 2024 NL is rife with mediocrity to date. Solely 4 NL golf equipment have a profitable report greater than a 3rd of the best way by way of the season. Chicago’s modest 30-31 standing on the season is definitely sufficient to offer them a one-game lead for the third NL wild-card spot. (Conversely, the 33-27 Twins maintain the highest wild-card spot within the American League.)
With the Cubs nonetheless squarely within the playoff image and slightly below eight weeks to go till the 2024 commerce deadline, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer is unsurprisingly trying forward with a purchaser’s mentality. The longtime Cubs exec chatted with The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney about his workforce’s current play, conceding that they’ve “performed poor baseball in loads of methods” however expressing confidence that there’s a turnaround on the horizon.
Hoyer added that he’s “continuously trying to enhance our workforce” and extra particularly lamented the shortage of home-run energy on his squad.
“You want to have the ability to homer on the proper occasions,” mentioned Hoyer. “And also you want to have the ability to rating in bunches. That’s one thing we haven’t performed, particularly early. … You bought to place stress on the opposing supervisor. You bought to get into the dangerous a part of the bullpen. We haven’t performed a ok job.”
The Cubs are a middle-of-the-pack house run workforce on the season as an entire, with 60 round-trippers on the yr. However over the previous 30 days, Chicago’s 24 house runs are tied for twenty second within the majors. In that span, the Cubs rank twenty ninth in baseball with a .216 common, twenty first with a .299 on-base share and twenty eighth with a .347 slugging share. Their mixed 23.7% strikeout fee can also be the sixth-highest within the majors.
Digging in a bit additional, the Cubs have seen sturdy manufacturing from Cody Bellinger over the previous month. Ian Happ has hit for a low common with a middling OBP however proven loads of energy. It’s been the inverse for Michael Busch, who’s hit .189 and flailed away with a 37% strikeout fee but additionally drawn walks in a couple of of 5 plate appearances, holding his batting line afloat with a robust OBP.
The remainder of the roster has struggled throughout on the plate, with specific problem from Dansby Swanson and (to a lesser extent) double-play associate Nico Hoerner over the previous month. Each are premium defenders who’re signed long-term, nonetheless, so neither will probably be displaced anytime quickly.
Bellinger has performed some extra first base just lately in mild of Busch’s contact struggles, however that’s left additional questions within the outfield, the place Seiya Suzuki has struggled upon hie return from the injured listing and Pete Crow-Armstrong has but to seek out his stride in a small pattern of massive league at-bats. Over at third base, Christopher Morel has struggled on either side of the ball just lately – Tuesday’s house run however. The Cubs’ catching tandem of Yan Gomes and Miguel Amaya, in the meantime, has been one of many worst in baseball from an offensive standpoint, combining for a .176/.220/.261 slash.
Speculatively talking, essentially the most easy areas at which so as to add could be third base, catcher or designated hitter. A 3rd baseman with some energy and a stable glove could be notably prudent, because it’d enable Morel to maneuver to extra of a DH-heavy position. There may not be many such hitters in the marketplace, nonetheless, notably if the Rockies keep on with their reported want to hold onto Ryan McMahon. If the Astros wind up promoting, impending free agent Alex Bregman is a logical goal, however Houston GM Dana Brown just lately downplayed the notion that Houston would commerce items away. Toronto GM Ross Atkins took an identical strategy in suggesting trades of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and/or Bo Bichette don’t “make any sense” for his membership.
The market may have just a few catchers accessible, notably if the Blue Jays or Rockies are keen to half with impending free brokers Danny Jansen and Elias Diaz. After all, the commerce market will proceed to return into focus because the deadline attracts nearer and as groups extra firmly cement themselves as playoff contenders or extra decisively fall again within the standings.
Taking a bigger-picture look, Bellinger’s means to play all three outfield positions and first base offers Hoyer and his workers some flexibility in the kind of hitter they pursue. If Busch continues to wrestle, he may very well be optioned to Iowa, with Bellinger taking up first base on a full-time foundation and the Cubs focusing on an outfielder. If Busch can rebound, the Cubs may pursue any outfielder whose bat they covet, understanding Bellinger may slot into any of the three outfield slots and that he, Happ, Suzuki and a brand new acquisition may rotate by way of the outfield and DH slots.
Nonetheless they select to go about it, the Cubs appear prone to be out there for some further punch heading into subsequent month’s commerce deadline. That’ll absolutely be true of many groups trying to bolster their rosters, however Chicago’s want is a little more acute – and the roster affords a number of factors for potential upgrades.
