Chicago Cubs Are Legitimate World Series Contenders After Hot Start Against NL West

The Chicago Cubs opened up the season with some very tough games on the road and at home.

The Cubs are 16-10 through their first 26 games of the year.

In those games, Chicago has had to play the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks a combined 20 times. Add in a series with the Texas Rangers, and it turns into 23 games against teams over .500 to start 2025.

The one series against a team with a losing record came on the road against the Athletics. They are 11-13 this year, though, and in games not against the Cubs, the Athletics have a winning record.

Coming out of that stretch of the schedule six games over .500 is impressive.

Chicago probably feels as if they could have an even better record because they blew a few games, as well.

The main reason for the hot start to the season is their ability to hit.

The Cubs lead the MLB in runs scored with 163. The next closest team is at 137. Additionally, they are slashing .265/.346/.460 as a team. They lead the MLB in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS.

Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong have been the two players who have really stood out.

Tucker, in his first year with the team, is slashing .314/.423/.637 with seven home runs, 25 RBI and 25 runs scored. The left-handed hitter has also walked 20 times while striking out only 15. More impressively, Tucker can hit against both lefties and righties, so there is no need to play matchups with him

Crow-Armstrong is the hottest hitter in baseball right now.

The speedy center fielder now owns a slash line of .294/.339/.549. He has hit five home runs, scored 21 runs and he has stolen 10 bases.

In the last 11 games, Crow-Armstrong is slashing .400/.413/.911 with all five of his home runs and 11 runs scored. He is hitting the cover off the ball right now, but his defense might be even better than that.

The former first-round pick is in the 99th percentile in Outs Above Average, 95th percentile in arm value and 95th percentile in arm strength.

Chicago's lineup has really picked up the slack from their pitchers.

At this point in the season, has a World Series lineup, and while it is only April, the Cubs have had to come back to win multiple times with almost every player recording a clutch hit.

There is one massive problem, though, and that comes within the pitching staff.

Firstly, the team is without their ace until the 2026 season after Justin Steele underwent elbow surgery to address a recurring issue he had.

Not having Steele is forcing Shota Imanaga to lead the staff by himself. Jameson Taillon, Matt Boyd and Ben Brown can all have shutdown outings, but they are susceptible to big innings.

The bullpen is where the problems become very evident.

Chicago has the fourth-highest reliever ERA this year. Along with that, the Cubs have blown the second-most saves, which is the same problem the team had in 2024. This unit struggles to throw strikes out of the bullpen, and the starters have made them throw the fifth-most innings.

Ryan Pressly has been pitching a lot better recently, while Porter Hodge has been lights out with the exception of one appearance. The rest of the bullpen is a coin flip on whether or not they will have a clean inning.

There are clearly some moves for them to make as the summer months approach. But the start they have had to the season has made Chicago look like a legitimate World Series contender.