Will the Cubs sniff .500 again this year? Playing the relatively lowly Reds should certainly help. The Reds won their opening series against the Pirates, so even aside from SSS take that initial record with a large grain of salt.
The Reds were not projected to be very good this year (3rd worst 69-93) projection, and they are certainly spending like it. As was noted on the Poscast, their fourth highest paid player this year is Ken Griffey Jr, who retired ~15 years ago and is due a $3.59m deferred payment. The only players above him are Joey Votto (no surprise), with a $25m salary, Mike Moustakas, who was released in the offseason, with $18m, and Wil Myers, with $6m.