The Cubs MVP So far?

There has been plenty of praise to go around, as the Cubs have one of the best records in the NL, and have built a 5.5 game lead in the NL Central, that has been more competitive than anticipated.

PCA is having a great year, Kyle Tucker has been as good as advertised, the defense has been amazing, Boyd and Taillon have been pitching like aces, and the no-name bullpen is putting up great results.

But a name I have not heard so much when talking about the Cubs’ success so far has been Craig Counsell. When the Cubs hired him away from the Brewers, there were very high expectations. And last season felt like a disappointment. But he’s managed to guide the team through several tough situations this season, showing the value he can provide as manager..

First off, if you’d told me that the Cubs would be without their best two starters for nearly two months – with one being out for the year – I would not have expected first place to still be possible. And despite struggles from Brown and, more recently, Colin Rea, he’s managed to still get enough innings out of the rotation to keep from completely overworking the bullpen. In the first few starts for Rea and Horton, he seemed to be very cautious about not forcing them to go to long. But as they’ve gotten stretched out there have been several times where I felt he might be going a bit too long with them and other starters. But in most of those occasions, he turned out to be right.

Speaking of the bullpen, after some major early season struggles, he’s found the right mix, using the entire 8-man bullpen in the right spots. Except for typically seeing Palencia a the closer (and he used him in a high-leverage 8th inning last week), Counsell has mixed and matched pitcher to situation, getting the most out of a group that had very little hype coming into the season. I’ve been surprised to see Cabrera or Flexen brought into a close game a few times, but it has mostly worked out.

And despite early season struggles from Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson, as well as getting nothing from third base the first month, the lineup was still producing. Counsell has been able to get Seiya Suzuki several starts in the outfield, where he’s actually produced better numbers than his time at DH. He’s also juggled the catcher position to keep Carson Kelly from being overused, especially during his very hot start, where there was temptation to pause the rotation, and have him start every day.

One small concern is that due to lack of production from the bench, the starters are not getting many days of rest. Happ and Tucker have gotten a few DH days, and Busch is not playing against lefties. But Shaw, Swanson, Hoerner and PCA have logged lots of innings. It will be interesting to see if that impacts their performance later in the season.

But overall, I believe Craig Counsell has done a great job this season, and should at least be considered as the most valuable contributor for the team so far.