Chicago Cubs Lead MLB In Several Surprising Categories

Yes, we are just nine or ten games into the 2022 season, so anyone can get carried away by such a small sample size. But when Cubs fans woke up on Monday, April 18, did they expect to see their squad atop the leaderboard of team On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS) Percentage? Probably not. Rest assured, they indeed lead baseball with a team OPS of .811. The Cubs are the only team with an OPS north of .800 to date.  They also lead baseball with a team batting average of .281, slightly ahead of the Colorado Rockies. Having played four games in Colorado's thin air likely has helped the Cubs sustain their early-season offensive success, so we must point that out, but still. For a team without former stars Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez, one would not peg the Cubs as an offensive leader in a statistic like batting average or OPS. While early, it's also worth noting the Cubs are No. 1 in team On-Base Percentage (OBP) at the moment, with a .364 mark. The Cubs are ranked tenth in walks drawn with 36 and are third in baseball with 85 hits.

Welcome to The Show, Seiya Suzuki

The key to these bloated offensive rankings likely is rookie outfielder Seiya Suzuki. The former Japanese star has had no problem adjusting to major league pitching so far, and is putting up fantastic numbers. Suzuki is third in baseball with a 1.503 OPS, and already has four homers and 11 RBIs. He is tied for fourth among all hitters with nine walks and has struck out an equal amount as well with nine. He was named National League Player of the Week and is already drawing the respect of opposing pitchers, as he was intentionally walked twice over the weekend in Colorado against the Rockies. While Suzuki has been the team's best player so far without question, the Cubs are getting boosts from other key players as well.

The veterans are stepping up, too

Two-time All-Star Willson Contreras is enjoying a hot start, with a .286/.375/.607 triple-slash line (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage) and veteran Ian Happ is hitting .346 with a .433 on-base percentage. About the only thing missing from Happ's resume so far in 2022 is his power, with zero homers so far. In addition to Contreras and Happ, Jonathan Villar is off to a blistering hot start, hitting .474 with a .OPS over 1.000. These numbers will start to go down as he accumulates more at-bats, as will be the case for all players across major league baseball, but the hot start is nonetheless exciting to see.

Can the Cubs keep this up?

This is the ultimate question. It is so early and you almost can't even pay attention to baseball statistics until early May, after a player sees about 70-100 at-bats and a pitcher has thrown 25 innings or so. With such a long season, baseball stats can vary and players' numbers can take a tumble quickly. The Cubs will need Suzuki, Happ, and Contreras to stay hot, obviously, but to continue this early-season success, they will need other players to step up. The Cubs appear to have a new offensive philosophy in the seasons' first week-and-a-half, and are focusing on putting the ball in play and reducing their strikeouts. They have the sixth-fewest strikeouts among all major league teams at just 68 total, while teams like the Baltimore Orioles (100) and San Diego Padres (104) have already reached the century mark and eight additional teams are already over 90 strikeouts. A season ago, the Cubs set the single-season team strikeout record with 1,596 team strikeouts. Yuck. Any chance at a playoff run in 2022 will come down to better plate discipline and fewer strikeouts. Acquiring players like Suzuki and Nick Madrigal, while seeing more at-bats from Nico Hoerner and Rafael Ortega, should balance out the teams' lineup and put contact-focused hitters on the base paths. So far, so good.  But there are still 150+ games to go.