Unbelievable Cubs stat justifies Jed Hoyer's often-frustrating approach to building a pitching staff

One of the signature trademarks of the Jed Hoyer era is a consistent and sometimes maddening refusal to pony up the funds to sign high-profile relievers. He came off that stance slightly last winter, signing Phil Maton to a multi-year deal and giving Hunter Harvey $6 million and both of those moves blew up in his face, so he might be on to something.

But what really justifies this approach to assembling a pitching staff is the all-around defensive unit behind the man on the mound. The Chicago Cubs are, by an extremely wide margin, the best defensive team in baseball. No other team has outperformed its FIP by a wider margin than Craig Counsell's club - and it's helped some unlikely arms put up impressive numbers.

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Nobody consistently outpitches his expected metrics like Javier Assad, who appears to be the odd man out in this new-look rotation, despite being a godsend for Counsell since being recalled in early June. On the year, he's got a 3.58 ERA in 75 1/3 innings - and a far less palatable 4.86 FIP.

Shota Imanaga, who has once again settled into a nice groove of late, is in a similar boat - though the gap isn't quite as big (3.60 ERA/4.38 FIP). Looking to the Cubs bullpen, pseudo-closer Jacob Well has nearly a full run difference between his ERA and FIP (2.49 ERA/3.43 FIP), Ryan Rolison has been an extreme benefactor (2.35 ERA/3.53 FIP) and Trent Thornton has been the luckiest of them all, with a difference of more than two runs between his ERA and FIP (2.78 ERA/4.86 FIP).

With a trio of Gold Glovers up the middle in Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs boast unmatched defensive prowess at the core of their defense. Michael Busch continues to be solid at first and Alex Bregman, who delivered Thursday's incredible game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth, can handle the hot corner with the best of them.

Hoyer knows the strengths of his team and what plays well with this standout defensive group ready to take away hits. Given the results we've seen this year (which are even more impressive given the sheer volume of arms the team has burned through), it justifies Hoyer's aversion to mega-contracts for late-inning arms. At this point, maybe we should all just give him the benefit of the doubt in this area.

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