Steele and Glass

 

So here's what's absolutely wild to me.

The NL Central race has looped and twisted so many times this season, without ever making it a surprise who's gonna end up in first. The Brewers are winning the division, we know this. But the saga to crown even ONE wild card team from this division has been ridiculous. I think virtually every single team in this division has had a turn at first, and all of them have had a turn at last. These teams have bobbed around like nobody, all for the opportunity to potentially edge out the Braves, Mets or Padres for a wild card spot. 

And the strange part, to me, is that the Cubs, who at one point absolutely bottomed out and laid there with virtually no shot, are basically the only NL Central team left with a shot at the wild card.

And it's not a 'by default' thing. The Cardinals, Reds and Pirates have all slowed down recently, to horrifying degrees, but it's not like the Cubs have just...stayed put. They've advanced. The Cubs are 15-13 since the ASG break, and they're 23-18 since July began. This run included huge wins against the Orioles, Cardinals, Royals and Twins, and opportunities for their big stars to come back into their own. 

I put it this way. The Cubs season bungeed and recoiled in the same time it took Justin Steele to get injured, come back, struggle and then click again. Steele is not fully at 2023 levels of excellence, and some early season starts took away from that, but he's still got a 3.10 ERA and 115 Ks in 20 starts. And that's really the thing about this rotation, there's a lot of people who've ebbed and flowed and it's really only now that they're all kind of hitting at once. Imanaga's back to a more consistent pace, only giving up 4 or less runs the last 5 starts. Hendricks has found the knack again and he's slowly getting his ERA back down. Assad is pretty much the only guy who's just been this consistent all year, and he's probably even better now than he was near the start. It's really only Taillon who's struggled lately, so having those four in great shape is at least a great ratio. 

Pretty much everything has finally fallen into place for this Cubs team. Swanson and Bellinger are back, and showing signs of productivity. Suzuki's hitting again and feeling like the guy the Cubs wanted all those years ago. PCA is very much Volpe in 2023, not offensively clicking yet but defensively incredible. All the new additions to the bullpen have turned the narrative around, and now that there's no longer a need for Hector Neris all involved parties can breathe easier. I think the issue for me is that there's no central offensive figure. Like the closest is Ian Happ but he's...fine, not blowing the doors off the place. Hoerner, Bellinger, now Paredes just haven't been that guy. But maybe they will.

The Cubs have the opportunity to push forward and land in the conversation again. I sincerely hope they take advantage of it before the division flips again.

Coming Tomorrow- I didn't think the A's could do 'defense-friendly infield specialist' at this stage of the rebuild, but here we are.