Cubs Face Red Hot Offense in Early Playoff Projections

With the last games in August being completed this week, there will be one more month of the regular season until playoff baseball starts. As it stands right now, the Chicago Cubs would be in the postseason for the first time in two years.

Once a team that was viewed as potential sellers due to some of their impending free agents, they flipped the script, getting hot enough for the front office to actually bring in pieces to help with their playoff push.

That has paid off and the Cubs currently hold the second spot in the NL Wild Card standings, entering Tuesday a half game clear of the final position.

Who could Chicago play in the first round of the 2023 playoffs?

They're slated to face the red hot Philadelphia Phillies in a best-of-three series.

This matchup would be sure to present fireworks with both offenses performing as some of the best in the MLB. The Phillies bats have come alive, putting up a league leading 52 home runs in the month of August.

On the surface, this would be a tough series for the Cubs. With major concerns surrounding the top end of their starting rotation and with youth in the bullpen, playing a team hitting the ball as well as Philadelphia spells trouble.

The aspect that helps Chicago is that the Phillies' pitching staff hasn't been lights out despite the big names at the top of the rotation. It's a gettable staff and could allow the Cubs to hit their way into winning games like they've done throughout the summer.

It will be a tightly contested Wild Card race in the National League to finish the season, but this is the early projected matchup if the results were to stay the same.