Justin Steele Headlines Several Cubs Sitting High on MLB Leaderboards

For all their frustrating play this season, the Cubs have benefited from several excellent individual performances. That’s part of what makes their sub-.500 record so hard to swallow. Their starting pitchers have an aggregate 3.62 ERA, seventh in MLB, and four members of the rotation have marks of 3.04 or lower. And while the bats haven’t held up their end of the bargain, three hitters are making noise with wRC+ numbers of at least 128.

Let’s first give Justin Steele his flowers after tossing seven shutout innings in Baltimore Thursday night to earn his second win in as many starts. It was just his second victory of the season despite a 2.71 ERA that ranks 14th among pitchers with at least 50 innings this season. One could reasonably argue that he’d be even better had that Opening Day hamstring injury not knocked him out for over a month.

The lefty ran hot-cold for a while, with terrible games outweighing the great ones, but he appears to have settled in. After posting a 4.41 ERA in his first six starts back from injury, Steele has a 1.65 ERA over his last seven outings. That’s enough to put him at a 2.95 mark over the last two seasons, tied with Seth Lugo for the best in MLB among starting pitchers in that time. Not bad.

Steele has more strikeouts and fewer walks than Lugo over that time as well, and his 6.7 fWAR is sixth among starters since the beginning of the 2023 season.

Turning our attention to the position players, we find Michael Busch acquitting himself well among his peers. The rookie ranks third among big league first basemen with a 141 wRC+, with only Freddie Freeman (151) and Bryce Harper (164) ahead of him. Busch’s 2.4 fWAR ranks fourth behind those same two and Christian Walker. Considering his lack of experience, that’s a pretty good spot.

Seiya Suzuki‘s 128 wRC+ ranks third among right fielders, with Fernando Tatis 10 points ahead and Juan Soto lapping the field with a completely ridiculous 181. Ian Happ doesn’t have as lofty a ranking, but sitting eighth among left fielders with a 129 wRC+ is pretty solid. And if we narrow that down to the last month, Happ’s 201 mark is second among left fielders and seventh in all of baseball. Busch isn’t far behind with a 183 that puts him 13th.

This obviously doesn’t carry as much weight as the team’s record, but there’s something to be said for having several standout performances. The biggest takeaway for me is that winning is as simple as getting basic contributions from the rest of the roster, which has been much easier said than done for much of the season. Yet even with the hole they dug for themselves, an exceedingly mid National League provides enough of an opening to keep hope alive.