Chicago Cubs Shockingly Productive Slugger’s Numbers Have Fallen Hard

The Chicago Cubs had an incredible start to the season in more ways than one, powering their way to the top of the standings with an offense that was putting up some incredible numbers.

In order to get to those numbers, it was requiring performances from players which might have been better than were sustainable over the course of a full season.

There may be no better example of overachieving this season than new catcher Carson Kelly. Brought in to be a platoon option and defensive specialist, Kelly shocked everyone with what his bat had been doing early on.

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Through the month of April, Kelly was slashing an absurd .360/.507/.840 and looked like a legitimate All-Star and unbelievably, doing his best impression of one of the best hitters in baseball.

Those figures were impossible to keep up and regression was inevitable, but unfortunately for Kelly and the Chicago lineup, he has come crashing back to reality with what was a dreadful last month.

In the last 30 days, Kelly has played in 16 games, and the numbers have been ugly. Slashing .172/.238/.241 with just two extra base hits, the fall has been just as steep as the climb if not even steeper.

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The thing that makes the rest of the season so difficult to predict for Kelly is how out of the ordinary his start was based on the rest of his career numbers.

In 10 Major League seasons, the 30-year-old owns a slash line of .227/.313/.384 with just 63 home runs in 595 games. He has never been a feared power hitter nor has he ever hit for average at a supremely high level.

Kelly well may have taken a big step as an offensive force this season. But the kind of numbers he was posting were always going to be too good to be true over a full season.

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If the numbers keep trending the way they have over the last month, Kelly is going to be relegated to the platoon role he was brought in for, especially when Miguel Amaya returns from injury.

In an ideal world, Kelly can keep his numbers at an at least solid figure and he and Amaya can continue to share the role as they had during the successful first month and a half for both.

For now though, it's a struggle for the veteran. Time will tell if he can get the train back on the tracks.

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