The Cubs played only five games this past week due to Sunday’s rainout. They won three of the five.
Nevertheless, we have enough data for an update on who was hot and not for the team over the five games.
Three up
Pete Crow-Armstrong remains en fuego
PCA’s probably going to win his second consecutive National League Player of the Week award when that honor is announced this afternoon (although he’s got some competition for that in Kyle Schwarber, who also had a big week).
Over the five games he batted .550/.600/1.300 (11-for-20) with a double,
a triple, four home runs, seven RBI, four walks and two stolen bases. The walks gave him 28 for the season, which might not sound like a lot but that’s just one fewer than he had for all of 2025.
Here’s his 106 mile per hour, 434 foot leadoff home run last Monday [VIDEO].
Oh, and he also hit for the cycle that day [VIDEO].
PCA is riding a 23-game on-base streak in which he is batting .412/.468/.835 (40-for-97) with seven doubles, two triples, 10 home runs, 17 RBI, 19 runs scored, six stolen bases and eight walks. He has a hit in all but one of those 23 games and has homered in four of his last six games.
He’s also a good candidate for Player of the Month. So far in 17 games in June (nine games remaining): .437/.481/.930 (31-for-71) with four doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 14 runs scored, 14 RBI and six stolen bases.
He’ll almost certainly make his second straight NL All-Star team, too.
Dansby Swanson has shown signs of coming out of his slump
Over the five games, Swanson batted .250/.400/.500. That’s just 4-for-16, but he also walked four times, homered and stole three bases.
Here’s his homer on Wednesday against the Rockies [VIDEO].
Carson Kelly had himself a week — all in one day
Kelly’s 2-for-4, six-RBI, grand slam day on Friday could be a week’s production for many players. Overall he played three games (one as a defensive replacement) and went 4-for-8 (.500) with the home run, a double, seven RBI and four runs scored over the week.
Kelly’s been a revelation in his year and a half with the Cubs. He plays solid defense and his bat is certainly good enough. He was a 3.5 bWAR player last year and likely has another 3 bWAR season in store in 2026. The Cubs and Kelly have a mutual $7.5 million option for 2026. Here’s hoping that’s either exercised (although mutual options rarely are) or they tear it up and find a way to keep him around another year.
He’s also one of the best catchers in MLB at ABS challenges, currently at a 78 percent rate. That’s fourth-best among catchers who have challenged more than 10 times.
Here’s his slam on Friday [VIDEO].
Three down
The collective bullpen had itself a really bad week
Yeesh. The pen gave up eight runs in two innings to the Blue Jays on Saturday and that followed a game Wednesday in which they nearly blew an 8-1 lead.
Jacob Webb, Caleb Thielbar, Trent Thornton and Ethan Roberts had all been reasonably successful for most of this year and had all resided in Craig Counsell’s circle of trust.
For the week, those four combined for the following numbers:
9.1 IP, 11 H, 15 R, 15 ER, 6 BB, 9 SO, 5 HR. That’s a 14.46 ERA and 1.821 WHIP and that’s more runs than a good bullpen should give up in maybe two months, let alone five games.
This has to improve or the Cubs are going to have to find replacements. Weirdly enough, Phil Maton, who had been super-awful most of the year, didn’t allow a run in two outings covering 1.2 innings over the week. Baby steps.
Alex Bregman still has a power outage
Bregman has six home runs this year, only one this month and just two in his last 138 at-bats dating to May 12. It’s not just home-run power that’s lacking. He has only five doubles in that 138 at-bat span for a SLG of .341, which is 140 points below his career slugging percentage entering 2026.
I’m not sure what’s going on here but let’s hope he finds his power stroke soon.
Bregman, at least, is drawing some walks. His .343 OBP is decent, and he’s still playing solid defense at third base.
But the bat has been lacking. Let’s hope it comes back.
Edward Cabrera had another rough outing
Cabrera returned from the injured list and had a good, zero-homer, two-run outing against the Rockies at Coors Field. Then he faced the same team at Wrigley this past week and got hit hard, allowing five runs in 4.2 innings, including a home run.
He just hasn’t been close to the pitcher he was in Miami. There’s still half a season left to turn this around. Sometimes, it seems as if hope is all we have.
