Entering the 2023 season Cubs fans just wanted to see the team have a competent offense after watching so many bad players last year. The expectations varied, but at the very least the 2023 Cubs should have an above average offense. Well, after four weeks of the regular season, the Cubs have the top offense in the National League.

Wait, what? Yeah, I’m not sure even the most optimistic portion of the fan base thought this team would get off to this great of a start, but I’m not complaining. And as I and many others have been saying, with a few more call ups from Triple-A, it could get even better. Nevertheless, so far so good. Let’s take a look at how good the Cubs offense has been after 24 games.

Score More Runs, Win More Games

I’d love to compare the Cubs offense to all of MLB, but they’re pretty much second to the Tampa Bay Rays in every offensive category. That doesn’t mean this group isn’t good though, because they are all over the top of the leaderboard in the National League.

Runs Per Game (NL Ranks)
Cubs – 5.62 – 1st
Braves – 5.15 – 2nd
Dodgers – 5.08 – 3rd

Through 24 games the Cubs have played eight series against seven different teams and they’ve had to face three pitching staffs that rank in the top-10 in MLB in ERA, in the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. They really only struggled against the Brewers in the first series of the regular season.

The Cubs have scored 5+ runs in 11 of their 24 games and their blowout 13-0 win last Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers marked the sixth time through their first 19 games that they scored 10 or more runs in a game.

That stretch began on April 4, against the Cincinnati Reds.

More Cubs NL Rankings
119 wRC+ – 1st
118 OPS+ – 1st
.276 BA – 1st
.346 OBP – 1st
.448 SLG – 1st
.794 OPS – 1st
230 Hits – 3rd (9.6H/G – 1st)
33 HR – 4th
25 SB – 2nd

Pretty, pretty good.

As you can imagine, the offense is being led by several players and not just a handful of guys pulling the rest of the group up. The Cubs have seven players with at least 50 plate appearances that have a wRC+ above 100.

Cubs Offensive Leaders
Cody Bellinger: .300/.380/.550, 153 wRC+
Patrick Wisdom: .241/.315/.639, 152 wRC+
Ian Happ: .302/.408/.477, 145 wRC+
Yan Gomes: .305/.311/.576, 136 wRC+
Nico Hoerner: .336/.377/.458, 131 wRC+
Seiya Suzuki: .283/.377/.391, 118 wRC+
Dansby Swanson: .284/.400/.352, 118 wRC+

Cubs Leaders in NL

Patrick Wisdom
9 Home Runs – 3rd in NL
.639 SLG – 4th in NL
.954 OPS – 7th in NL

Nico Hoerner
.336 BA – 6th in NL
10 SB – 2nd in NL

Ian Happ
9 Doubles – t-3rd in NL
.408 OBP – 9th in NL

And again, the Cubs will continue to plug the holes in their roster. On Friday, they already DFA’d Luis Torrens, who was providing little to nothing as a DH, while outfielder Nelson Velázquez is staying with the team. You would think that some time in May, left-handed hitting slugger Matt Mervis will come up to give a boost to the lineup as well.