Chicago Cubs: Willson Contreras is quietly becoming the catcher he predicted

Chicago Cubs: Can Contreras maintain this pace?

So the question is can the Chicago backstop maintain this torrid offensive output in the second half?  There are signs of leakage.  His June numbers were down and especially toward the very end of the month.

His month high .976 OPS dropped to .936 and those numbers are down from the 1.043 OPS at the end of April.  However, his July numbers in five games did start to show a recovery.

I see Maddon resting Contreras a little more aggressively than he did in 2018, though it will prove difficult to take one of the best bats out of your lineup while the NL Central remains a horse race.  Fortunately, Victor Caratini has proven to be a capable backup on the offensive side, even though he lacks Willson’s defensive abilities.

Contreras is one of the core players on the team, alongside Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, and at least this year, Heyward.  It is around that core that Epstein will build moving forward.  Others have to step up if the Cubs are to make a run deep into the postseason. But it looks moving forward that the team has their guy behind the dish.