ST. LOUIS — When Jed Hoyer’s front office wraps its work at the trade deadline Monday, don’t expect to see any big additions to the lineup.
Obviously, the team’s focus will be on improving a pitching staff that’s already had its depth stretched to its limits amid an avalanche of summer injuries.
But adding arms doesn’t just demand a higher priority. The team’s position players have been good enough that significant midseason augmentation in that area is simply not necessary.
“Our position-playing group is really, really good,” Hoyer said at the start of the second half. “That’s a group that could win a lot of games in October.”
The Cubs’ bats have made Hoyer’s prediction look like a good one of late, posting big run totals and establishing themselves as one of the sport’s best lineups — one that indeed could fuel a deep playoff run.
Even in a season that saw a lineup-wide power outage for a month, the Cubs came into Wednesday as baseball’s No. 3 team in runs scored, with 558 of them, trailing only the Nationals and Pirates, two teams they’re ahead of in the crowded NL wild-card race.
They scored 35 of those runs in their previous four games, with run totals of 11, 7, 7 and 10. They scored double-digit runs four times in their first 11 games following the All-Star break.
And since the end of that early-summer slump, there’s arguably been no better offensive team than the Cubs, who woke up Wednesday leading the sport in runs scored (250), on-base percentage (.355) and walks (169), second in slugging percentage (.465) and OPS (.820) and third in batting average (.269), doubles (79) and triples (10) since June 11.
It’s not just a helpful turnaround — one the Cubs were plenty confident was coming during their doldrums — but a consistent offensive output that could make them as fearsome a postseason foe as any team.
“We have so many good players in this lineup that play every day,” left fielder Ian Happ said Tuesday, “and I have all the confidence in the world this group is going to put up those kinds of numbers, because that’s who we are.
“You saw it early in the year, we were a top-five offense, and then we had those [few] weeks of not producing. Then you get hot like this. It ebbs and flows. There’s a lot of belief in the players in the room.”
How dangerous could these Cubs be to opposing pitchers, even the caliber of arms they’ll see in the playoffs?
Just ask Pirates ace Paul Skenes, the reigning NL Cy Young winner who gave up five runs to the Cubs last weekend.
Or ask their teammates. Inside the Cubs’ clubhouse, pitchers are certain about one thing: They’re happy they don’t have to figure out a way to get through this lineup.
“I think about that all the time, honestly,” righty Colin Rea said with a smile. “You’ve got Pete [Crow-Armstrong] at the top of the lineup to start the game, that’s not someone you want to face off the bat.
“It’s a good, balanced lineup that can get on base but also do damage.”
And of course, this is the same group of players responsible for the team’s status as the best defensive squad in baseball.
Throw it all together, and yes, Mr. Hoyer, this indeed looks like a group capable of powering a great many October victories.
Of course, there is a reason Hoyer & Co. are on the prowl for pitching, and that’s an area that needs to be fortified if the Cubs are to avoid the same fate they suffered last fall, when pitching-depth issues helped them to an earlier-than-desired playoff exit against the division-rival Brewers.
But with these position players as a foundation, belief in a different outcome is far from unwarranted.
“The one thing that’s been so consistent is, obviously, the position-player group that has, fortunately, been able to stay healthy and show up every day and play and continue to stack winning baseball on top of each other,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said earlier this month. “There’s so much room for this team to continue to grow and get better and play better.”
