The Cubs entered 2024 knowing several young players were going to be making plenty of starts for them offensively.

Players like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Christopher Morel and Miguel Amaya had big roles to play — but with that comes a steep learning curve. The gap from the minors to the majors has arguably never been bigger and — as both Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein before him have said, development isn’t always linear.

But the Cubs were ready to hand the keys over to the kids. And they would do so knowing the difficulties that arise when amidst struggles that come with everyday opportunities and trying to win every day.

“I think that’s part of the game today,” Hoyer said earlier this week. “I think that that’s only going to get more challenging.”

That trio has struggled this season. Morel (93), Amaya (67) and Crow-Armstrong (51) all have a weighted runs-created plus below league average. The struggles have compounded for an overall offense that has regressed mightily from last season.

This season, the team is tied for 20th in runs scored — a steep drop-off from a lineup that was 6th in the same category last year. The inconsistent play of Morel, Crow-Armstrong and Amaya hasn’t helped, but just as big is performances of some of their veterans.

Cody Bellinger (108 wRC+) has been solid this year, but it’s not at the elite level he was at last season (134 wRC+) and he’s dealt with a pair of injuries that have limited him to just 79 games this season. Dansby Swanson (80 wRC+) and Nico Hoerner (96 wRC+) have performed below the levels they were at last season.

It’s something the Cubs are going to have to make sure improve on, especially as they keep an eye on 2025 and beyond. The Cubs have several offensive prospects in the upper tiers of the minor leagues and they won’t necessarily have the luxury of going through the major-league growing pains in non-competitive seasons.

“You’re gonna have to win with young players while they go through those struggles and find a way to balance those things out,” Hoyer said.

The Cubs have been able to do that on the pitching side. Arms like Ben Brown, Javier Assad and Porter Hodge have all developed into solid pitching options. And it’s because of play of veterans around them that have allowed them to do that.

In 2023, the Cubs had terrific starting pitching performances throughout the year by Justin Steele, Marcus Stroman and Kyle Hendricks, allowing Assad to develop as a quality starting pitcher because he didn’t have to be an ace on the team.

Brown and Hodge this season were eased into roles because of the success of other arms around them this year. That allowed the duo, especially Hodge, to ease into leverage roles and thrive as a trusted arm in Craig Counsell’s bullpen.

“I think on the pitching side, we’ve done it with a lot of young arms,” Hoyer said.

Now the secret is to do it on the hitting side — and it comes down to having veterans thriving and easing the pressure off the young hitters. The goal for the Cubs would be for those young hitters to be ancillary pieces to a well-cogged machine and not focal points.

That allows struggles of young players to be minimized — unlike this season.

“Obviously, getting at or above projection performances out of your veteran guys sort of helps mitigate that a lot,” Hoyer said. “And that hasn’t happened to a certain extent, and I think that that’s part of our struggle.”