The Cubs can't keep getting away with their awful bench

The Chicago Cubs rank second in baseball in runs scored (376), trailing just behind the reigning World Series champion Dodgers.

They also roster two of the top 11 position players in terms of fWAR, Pete Crow-Armstrong (3.6, third) and Kyle Tucker (2.8, 11th), and everyone in their starting lineup has a wRC+ of at least 94. Simply put, this is a juggernaut offensive group, with a few superstars carrying the heaviest load, and a deep lineup that can offer support from every position.

Among the position player group, there's practically no weaknesses... until you look at the bench.

Cubs' bench among worst groups in MLB

The team's current bench of Reese McGuire, Justin Turner, Jon Berti, and Vidal Brujan can at least claim that it looks versatile and effective on paper, but in practice, it's arguably the weakest unit on the entire team.

Save for McGuire (124 wRC+ in 27 plate appearances) and the injured Miguel Amaya (.819 OPS), just about everyone who was taken up residency on Chicago's bench this year has been an unmitigated disaster.

That group consists of Turner, Berti and Bruján, Moises Ballesteros, Nicky Lopez, and Gage Workman, the latter two of whom are no longer with the team.

That sextet has combined to take 243 at-bats for the Cubs this season (for reference, Ian Happ has taken that same amount in 59 games played this year). They've notched just 49 hits (.202 batting average), just eight of which have gone for extra bases. They've also struck out 54 times compared to just 23 walks.

The highest wRC+ of the group belongs to Turner (67). The same is true for OPS (Turner sits at .566). It's rare that a club has above-average bats just sitting around on its bench, but the reserves the Cubs have put at Craig Counsell's disposal are downright dismal.

And that last point is important — Counsell simply doesn't trust any of these guys, save for his surprisingly effective catcher group. Turner has been rendered into a poor man's platoon option at first base for Michael Busch. Bruján is technically the most versatile of the bunch, though he's currently operating with a negative WAR (-0.1). Berti hasn't even made a start or taken an at-bat since May 20!

For now, that isn't hurting the team. The team's position players have stayed remarkably healthy across the board thus far, and the excessive amount of playing time hasn't seemed to negatively impact anyone's game.

But that health won't last forever. We saw just how dire things got when Matt Shaw had to take a month-long sabbatical in the minor leagues to figure out his swing. There's no one on the bench right now that anyone would trust to pinch-hit, let alone start for an extended period of time.

It's clear that this is a big area of need. While starting pitching will be Jed Hoyer's prime trade deadline directive, he can't pass up on upgrading from the team's woeful bench options.