Friday, May 01

Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season.

CHICAGO – The Cubs’ opening month felt like a season in itself, given how much happened around the ballclub.

There were two big contract extensions – one for Nico Hoerner and another for Pete Crow-Armstrong. There was the loss of righty Cade Horton for the season, plus a wave of injuries that impacted the bullpen. Chicago had a cold start, but then the lineup caught fire and the club rattled off 10 wins in a row for its longest April winning streak since 1970.

A lot was thrown at the Cubs over the first few weeks, but they have held it together and are in second place in the National League Central with a 19-12 record.

“Look, this is a Major League season. Things happen,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We’ve got a big taste of it already. You play the game in front of you and you play with the guys you have and you go from there. That builds resilience, if anything.”

Here is the best of the opening month for the North Siders:

Player: Nico Hoerner

Hoerner has delivered one of the best months of his career, playing at a level that would put him in the NL MVP conversation if he maintained this early pace. Entering Wednesday, Hoerner was tied for fourth in MLB in fWAR (1.6), trailing only Yordan Alvarez (2.0), Elly De La Cruz (1.7) and Aaron Judge (1.7). Hoerner has slashed .291/.370/.449 with four homers, eight doubles, 26 RBIs and only 14 strikeouts in 146 plate appearances. He is also one of just four Cubs in the Wild Card Era (since 1995) to collect at least 25 RBIs and 35 hits in the team’s first 30 games.

Pitcher: Shota Imanaga

Imanaga looked great during the spring and has carried that into the season, posting a 3.15 ERA through his first six starts. The lefty has shown improved fastball velocity (92 mph on average compared to 90.8 mph last year, per Statcast) and racked up a ton of swinging strikes (four starts already with 17 or more whiffs). In 34 1/3 innings, Imanaga has allowed just 21 hits (.171 average) and has 38 strikeouts versus nine walks. Five of the 12 runs he has allowed have come via three homers.

Reliever: Ben Brown

While the bullpen has been riddled with injuries and dealt with a constant churn of relievers, Brown has been a source of stability as a bridge arm for Counsell. The righty has worked at least 1 2/3 innings in each of his 10 appearances, while posting a 1.99 ERA and limiting opposing hitters to a .210 average. Brown has 22 strikeouts against seven walks in 22 2/3 innings and has shown off a new sinker, combined with his usual fastball-curveball mix.

Best game (hitting): Dansby Swanson

Swanson gets the nod here for his late heroics in a 6-4 win over the Dodgers on Friday that extended the Cubs’ winning streak to 10 games at the time. The Cubs shortstop connected for a two-run triple in the seventh inning and then launched a two-run homer in the ninth, completing a six-run outburst over the final three frames for Chicago. His performance featured 0.465 Win Probability Added.

Best game (pitching): Imanaga

Imanaga spun six no-hit innings against the Pirates on April 10, but that was arguably his second-best performance of the first month. His most stellar outing came on April 15 in Philadelphia, when the Cubs lefty racked up 11 strikeouts in six frames with 26 whiffs, tying a Cubs single-game record in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). Yu Darvish previously set the mark on Aug. 23, 2020, against the White Sox.

Defensive play: Hoerner

With two Gold Gloves already, Hoerner already has a strong reputation for great range and pulling off spectacular plays. In the seventh inning on Friday, the second baseman paired his athleticism with instincts to stun the Dodger Stadium crowd. Hoerner made a leaping, barehanded snag on a ball that caromed off the glove of first baseman Michael Busch, and then threw out Hyeseong Kim at first base. The play was so impressive, Hoerner couldn’t help but smile afterward.

Who was the last Cubs pitcher to have at least 10 relief appearances and at least 22 2/3 innings pitched (no starts) in a one-month period?

A. Shawn Boskie

B. Paul Assenmacher

C. Lee Smith

D. Bruce Sutter

With their 8-3 win over the Padres on Tuesday night, the Cubs officially clinched the 900th career managerial win for Craig Counsell. In true Chicago fashion, Counsell did a shot of Malört during a celebration with the team after the game.

“Mostly, I think you think about players, No. 1,” Counsell said of the milestone. “And then probably that you’ve just been in the game for a long time. You’ve been doing it for a while and are fortunate to be doing it for a long time. Those are two things. You think of players first. You think of players going through this journey of their career.”

Counsell reached No. 900 with 193 wins with the Cubs (.545 winning percentage) and 707 wins with the Brewers (.531 winning percentage). He is the 78th manager to reach that total and currently ranks fourth among active managers, trailing Terry Francona (2,052), A.J. Hinch (979), Dave Roberts (964) and Kevin Cash (914).

• Pete Crow-Armstrong heating up as Cubs snag series vs. Padres. Read more >>

• Hoerner, Alex Bregman, PCA power Cubs’ win in San Diego. Read more >>

• Justin Steele (left elbow) encounters delay in comeback. Read more >>

• How an early ABS mistake came back to bite Cubs. Read more >>

• Phil Maton rejoins bullpen, while Riley Martin is out eight weeks. Read more >>

“He’s a great communicator. He’s always prepared. Extremely smart baseball mind. I feel like he loves it. He loves the competition. He loves winning. He loves the details of the game. He’s just extremely smart and he has a competitive edge to him as well that’s super important. I feel like all the guys in this room have all the respect in the world for him.” – Bregman, on Counsell

“Counse brings a sense of peace and calm into the dugout. The same way we’ve grinded, he’s had to grind through these moves and all that stuff. He’s clearly made some really good decisions.” – Crow-Armstrong, on Counsell

First and foremost, thank you for subscribing to the Cubs Beat newsletter and for checking out all the coverage at Cubs.com and MLB.com. As an early-season reminder, you can also follow me over on Bluesky and Instagram (you can find me under “bastianmlb”). For anyone who prefers TikTok, I’ve also started an account there, too.

A. Shawn Boskie

Prior to Brown this year, the last Cubs pitcher to have at least 22 2/3 relief innings in 10 or more outings in a month (no starts) was Boskie in August of 1993. Boskie had a 2.74 ERA in 13 games (23 innings) in that month for Chicago.

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