These Christopher Morel stats prove he is reaching stardom with the Cubs

If you have not noticed, Christopher Morel has stepped up significantly for the Chicago Cubs to begin the 2024 campaign. A season ago, Morel was on a blistering pace of 39 homers throughout 162 games. Now, all the things he needed to improve on at the dish, including strikeout percentage, are off to a great start:

Morel was always an X-factor heading into 2024, given that if he does anything to improve from '23 he will most likely be somebody eyeing his first All-Star appearance vs. if he takes a step backward, it would have the Cubs missing critical production in their lineup. Thankfully, it's been the former, and at 24 years old, there is still a lot to unlock in his potential.

He finds himself among the leaderboards of both HRs and RBIs and it will be interesting to see if he can crack the 30 home run plateau for the first time in his career over a full season of at-bats. More importantly, his approach at the plate proves how locked in he has been and that he isn't focused squarely on knocking the ball out of the park.

The bat will be penciled into the lineup daily, as there's no way for Craig Counsell to justify not having him hit. Morel still needs to prove he can handle the hot corner; however, he has a mixed bag with a few errors, but he has also made solid plays.

The Cubs desperately hope his .813 fielding percentage will increase, so they can have the luxury of utilizing the DH spot as they, please. Still, his 0.3 WAR through 12 games of the season is already 20% of the egregiously low projection for the entire season given to him by Fangraphs. Morel has all the potential to become one of the more prolific hitters in baseball, and it all starts with what he's doing currently.

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