He’s one of the best surprises of the entire league.
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Chicago Cubs fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Earlier this week, I posted this SB Nation Reacts survey which asked you to vote for the Cubs player who has been the most pleasant surprise so far this year.
The result should be no surprise to you:
Through Friday, Carson Kelly is batting .364/.500/.818 (20-for-55, 1.318 OPS) with a double, a triple and seven home runs. He’s scored 14 runs and has 22 RBI. He also has one more home run (seven) than strikeouts (six) entering Friday’s game.
As you surely recall, Kelly hit for the cycle March 31 vs. the A’s. The double and triple in that game are the only such hits he’s had this year.
Clearly, Kelly’s not going to hit like this all year. His best offensive season was in 2019 with the Diamondbacks, when he hit .245/.348/.478 with 18 home runs in 111 games and 365 PA. That was a 1.5 bWAR season. I think we’d take that.
Some of you mentioned that I should have included Pete Crow-Armstrong in the survey and that you would have voted for him. Point taken, although given PCA’s good second half of 2024, his performance to date isn’t really that much of a surprise, in my view.
Stay tuned as we’ll have more SB Nation Reacts surveys brought to you by FanDuel going forward.