Looking at the Chicago Cubs offense, it's clear that they followed the treasure map and found their bats in the 10-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night. In the red-hot NL Central, dealing with offensive woes isn't going to make a postseason journey more feasible.
That appeared to be over and also one man made his triumphant return: Yan Gomes.
Gomes has been on the IL since he suffered a concussion and was on the list retroactive to May 2nd. The 35-year-old returned and is having one of the best seasons of his career.
The catcher is slugging .324/.347/.592 - arguably one of the best seasons for him in recent years. At his three at-bats, he sent one sailing and netted two RBIs. It brings his 2023 season total to six homers and 15 RBIs in 20 games played.
To put that in perspective, he hit eight homers in all of 2022. In 162 games.
We're 35 games in and he has six. Luck or not, he's a needed piece back in the Cubs puzzle.
Gomes is only striking out 12.0 percent of his at-bats, this is also a career-best for him. Now granted, this is a small sample size of the season but one that is a positive for the Cubs.
Gomes' return will put Tucker Barnhart out of the batting order and he's not going to be sorely missed. Barnhart only slashed .182/.245/.205 in 49 plate appearances.
Chicago is going to massively benefit from the veteran returning. With Gomes, the Cubs are 12-7 when he's playing versus 5-12 without him. The pitching staff has been better with him behind the plate and he's a reliable hitter.
As there also seems to be no more health issues for now with Gomes, expect the Cubs to be more of a contending force as they progress past the 35-game mark.
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