Chicago Cubs: A Productive Jason Heyward Would Make Team Unstoppable

If Jason Heyward continues to rake, the Chicago Cubs are going to be unstoppable.

Jason Heyward clearly did not have a great debut season with the Chicago Cubs. Heyward was a valuable defender for the World Champs and is credited with giving an emotional speech to help motivate the Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series. However, Heyward had a really tough year with the bat.

The Cubs $184 million right fielder hit .230/.306/.325 last season, showing absolutely no power all season long. He struggled to make consistent contact and did not drive the ball when he did connect. Heyward was a huge liability at the plate for the Cubs, and according to the advanced stat wRC+ (read about the stat here), he was the fourth-worst offensive player in Major League Baseball. Make no mistake about it, Heyward was awful.

He worked hard on his swing this offseason and has looked great in the early part of the 2017 season. Heyward is hitting .333 on the season so far, which is great to see. However, that is obviously a super small sample size. A good start to the year does not mean that Heyward is all of a sudden fixed but it is a good sign.

His performance against the Milwaukee Brewers is also incredibly encouraging. Heyward went 2-for-5 on the afternoon which is good, but a deeper look paints a brighter picture. Heyward started his afternoon with a bases-loaded triple to deep centerfield that scored two runs.

That ball was scorched by Heyward and his other hit in the resulted in an RBI as well.

Even the outs Heyward recorded on Sunday were struck well. In his last at-bat, he crushed the ball to center field again and was seemingly robbed of a home run by Brewers centerfielder Keon Broxton. Heyward hit the ball extremely well in all five at-bats and was three Brewers’ web gems away from a 5-for-5 performance.

Heyward’s exit velocity in all five at-bats today was incredible impressive. Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation laid it out well for us in a series of Tweets.

Heyward shows up well in the box score against the Brewers, but it clearly could have been a massive day. Credit the Brewers for making the defensive plays, but Heyward making that much hard contact is great to see. If he can keep this up, we are going to see a major offensive resurgence out of the Cubs right fielder this season.

With or without a strong Heyward at the plate, the 2017 Chicago Cubs are absolutely loaded with talent all over the field. Bad luck with injuries would likely be the only thing to hold them back from a repeat as National League Central champions. Anything can happen in the playoffs, but I have a hard time seeing any team in the Central competiting with a healthy Cubs’ squad.

Next: Bold Predictions for 2017 Cubs

However, if Heyward can continue to hit the ball hard and give the Cubs strong offensive production to go along with his elite outfield defense, they might be completely unstoppable. Going into the season, Heyward was the only obvious weak spot in the Cubs’ lineup. Now, he may become one of the strengths in a lineup loaded with great hitters.

If Jason Heyward can be even a league average hitter, the Chicago Cubs are going to be incredibly difficult to beat. If he can continue to hit 100 MPH lasers on every at-bats, they might not ever lose.