PITTSBURGH — The Chicago Cubs’ offensive philosophy became clear early in spring training.
They want to be able to score in a variety of ways, whether on home runs and extra-base hits or through small-ball tactics where baserunning and putting the ball in play fuel their success on any given day.
That mentality of diversifying their run-scoring has manifested throughout April as opposing pitchers have struggled to keep the Cubs off the board.
Putting up elite offensive numbers has been even more impressive given their level of competition, as the Cubs own the toughest strength of schedule through their first 29 games.
The Cubs entered Tuesday’s series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park with one of the top offenses in the big leagues this month. The Cubs have averaged a major-league-best 5.93 runs per game while averaging 4.00 pitches per plate appearance, good for second in the majors.
They also led Major League Baseball in slugging percentage (.444), OPS (.783) and RBIs (126) while ranking second in batting average (.263) and on-base percentage (.339).
“We’ve just played a complete brand of offense, which is what’s really led to some of our success, obviously, and when you are playing some of the teams that we’ve played, like, you can’t control the schedule and can’t control who’s hot when you’re playing, I mean, all the things, right?” shortstop Dansby Swanson told the Tribune on Tuesday. “And so going up against the arms and the staffs and the bullpens that we’ve faced so far has been a really good challenge for us, but it just shows you that as an offense you have to be able to compete in different ways and not rely on one aspect. And obviously we’ve done pretty well.”
The early power the Cubs’ lineup has collectively displayed is among the best slug production to begin the season in franchise history. Only seven Cubs teams in the last 60 years — 1980, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2019 and 2023 — have posted a better OPS in the opening month of the season than the current group. Of those teams, only two reached the postseason, though one appearance notably ended with a World Series title.
The Cubs’ current odds to make the playoffs range from 93.2% by Baseball Reference and 65.3% by FanGraphs.
“Really, at the end of the day, players step up when they’re called upon, and you’ve got a lot of guys that want those at-bats in big situations, or even in situations where you’re up or down a lot, like, never giving an at-bat away,” Swanson said. “That mentality really carries over and is contagious. It’s really hard to quantify, but it’s a real thing, and momentum is a real thing. Being able to kind of energize one another has been really good.”
Last year’s strong start, taking an 18-12 record into May en route to a second straight 83-79 season, is an important reminder that there are still plenty of games left, regardless of the Cubs’ challenging schedule. Tuesday represented the first time this year the Cubs played a team below .500.
“These are our guys, and we’re playing really well to this point,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re swinging the bats really well. We’re scoring runs at a really good clip, really as good as anybody in baseball, and so you just build off that. It doesn’t promise you tomorrow. We’ve got to go out and do it tonight and that’s as far as you think about it. We’ve got to go have good at-bats. We’ve got to swing at the right pitches.”
Hitting coach Dustin Kelly has been most impressed by the hitters being really aggressive in the zone, which has been a focal point since spring training. The Cubs’ in-zone swing percentage ranks fifth in the majors, while their in-zone contact percentage is eighth best and their overall contact percentage puts them fourth.
“We knew that our guys are going to take their walks, they’ve controlled the strike zone really well throughout their careers, for the most part, with all of them,” Kelly told the Tribune on Tuesday. “And then the emphasis was, OK, we do this so well, the next piece of this is, hey, let’s look to do some damage in the zone and make sure that our in-zone swing percentage is really good. And when you’re getting pitches to hit in the zone, that we’re looking to be aggressive and do damage on that, I think we’ve seen that.
“We’re still taking our walks, but we’re seeing some of the power numbers and the damage numbers just because we are aggressive in that zone.”
What that aggressive approach in the strike zone entails varies from hitter to hitter, centering on individual game planning with each player. Some of that success can be attributed to a deep lineup and confidence, Kelly said.
“They see all of these guys having these great at-bats and spitting on the tough pitches and getting their ‘A’ swing off on the pitches in the zone,” Kelly said. “You talk about hitting’s contagious, and I think an approach and the way that we attack a pitcher can be contagious as well, and we’ve seen a lot of that this first month.”
Some Cubs fans might be understandably wary about getting too excited by what the offense has done over the last four weeks after watching the lineup go into a collective freeze for nearly two months last year. The Cubs are confident that these players and this lineup construction aren’t as susceptible to such an extreme funk.
“Those extra-base hits and the damage and the slug has come from the bottom part of the lineup as well and not just (Ian) Happ and (Seiya) Suzuki, and (Kyle Tucker),” Kelly said. “So we have slug basically one through nine, which is a really, really good feeling knowing that at any moment one of those guys can put a ball out of the ballpark, but they’re also taking great at-bats and getting on base for the guy behind them.”
