Michael Busch played like an ALL-STAR for the Chicago Cubs

Michael Busch played like an ALL-STAR for the Chicago Cubs

What a season for Michael Bush. Let’s go. You are Locked on Cubs, your daily Chicago Cubs podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are Locked On Cubs, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Alongside Sam Olber. I’m Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans, taking our passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Hey, later in the show, we’re going to start naming every single player that played for the 2025 uh Cubs with a mini review. Maybe we slap a grade on to them. Uh but anybody from one inning, one plate appearance, whatever it is, uh we’ll explain that because we’re in the the midst of of grading all the the regulars and we’ll exclude some some starters and relievers as well. But uh excited to uh to give that a try. We start with Michael Bush, who is one of those nine regulars in 155 games. Michael Bush slashed 261, 343, 523 with 34 home runs, 25 doubles, and 90 runs batted in. Sam, this is a guy that’s not in the star category, but he sure made a name for himself this year. And and I think he made an allstar turn in 2025. He really did. And I was I I was not bullish on him coming into the year. Um I had him right around like if you were to tell me that he finished with a a seven 770 OPS or something like that, I would have taken it because he just in a vacuum he’s terrific, right? He’s a terrific He was terrific. but you know, high strikeouts, not a huge bat-toball guy, not not a high average guy. So, you you you sometimes you loop him into the rest of the guy’s deficiencies, and that’s not really fair to him. Um, he was amazing. He had an amazing year, and every time it really felt like he was kind of coming back down to earth, he got really hot again. and and and to finish the year with an 866 OPS, very steady over there defensively. Um, you know, Michael Bush is a great example of, I think, my push and pull or tugof-war, if you will, with the Cubs organization. And that is in a vacuum, he’s a brilliant player, but overall, do you have to look at and say, “Hey, because we have a a great player in Michael Bush and this is his skill set, do we need more diversity in other ways with with more bat-to ball guys and things like that, but I think where my mistake is is I I’ll punish the player.” That’s not really his fault. I mean, he had an 86 866 OPS, as you mentioned, 34 home runs. Let’s count four in the postseason, 38 home runs. and he did it in arguably the worst hitting environment in baseball for a left-handed hitter. Uh I mean just a brilliant for me just a brilliant season and um you know somebody I think fans should be really excited about at this point. Absolutely. And uh doing some research for this episode, you know, thinking about first baseman of the past, Michael Bush has uh really provided the Cubs something they haven’t had, which is a cornerstone at first base really since the Anthony Rizzo uh days. More more on that later. But uh Oh, is that a hint? Is that a trivia hint? No, no, it’s it’s it’s it’s going to be sooner than later. It’s just I have the list of people that have started first base between Rizzo and Bush. It’s a joke. Um they they needed to do something there and they did. Jed Hoyer identified him. He was blocked with the Dodgers. Uh uh Wait, what? What? No, I just The way you said that made me laugh. Yeah. And uh I I I backdate the leadoff stuff, Sam. I I know he was hotter like down the stretch like even the last just 10 20 games. I I want to follow up on that at some point because he didn’t really do that well in the leadoff spot. But what Michael Bush provided this year to this team uh proved to be really really beneficial. It was impact offense. Uh you talk about the Wrigley environment that could be the the poster boy for you know what what Hoyer’s claims are like oh Wrigley you know we don’t know what’s going to do and the weather and uh with with Bush or Pete Tucker when he was on but you kind of look under the hood you could see that that stuff is affected. Um but but here’s a player hit 10 home runs his last 28 games, four in the eight playoff games as you said and he was outstanding. The two rubs for me, one he hit only 223 in the 66 game since moving to lead off on July 13th. I didn’t know it was that low. And I do believe that Craig Council andor the front office, right, not fully knowing who’s making this decision. But Michael Bush, it almost was a quiet all-star season. And I think some of that is because a lefty’s on the mound. He doesn’t play in the regular season. Right. Right. Craig Councel, you know, producing some of that narrative almost by saying, “Hey, here’s a guy that might be named an all-star game next summer, but against lefties, he’s not really going to play. Hey, he only batted 95 times this year against lefties.” Yeah, I’m looking up what he hit. He hit only 200 or so. Yeah, but let me ask you about that, Sam. I I just Yeah, it’s a great It’s great. Justin Turner got so much PT against righties. I wonder I wonder what would happen if Michael Bush kind of, you know, joined his off season and, you know, whatever it is that he does and and and in early February or whenever they report midFebruary said, “Hey, hey, Skip, do you have a second? I’d love to speak with you in your office.” And just said, “Hey, look, I want to be an everyday guy. Um, I want to play every day and I would love the opportunity. Give Give me Give me a month. Give me a month of of of a roll out to play every day. Uh, because I feel like I could be an everyday player. I’d love that opportunity. I I I wonder. Yeah, great suggestion. I wonder if he did that, what would the Cubs do? And and the answer is probably whatever the numbers say. And the numbers probably say uh to sit him verse lefties. But as you point out, you know, 95 at bats, I mean, that’s just such a small amount. And I actually remember I think he got did he get a lefty in the playoffs or he had a couple hits for his lefties in the playoffs. Yeah. Uh yeah, I mean it’s it’s just this chicken in the egg. I think sometimes with these these analytics like how can a player improve if he doesn’t get the opportunity uh to to do so? And and maybe with his I I would assume his his OPS versus righties was over 900 then on the year. Um, you know, does he earn the right for a month plus? Uh, it’s a great question. Yeah, I don’t know. There was the game against Aaron Ashby where Turner went one for two to open the game, then Bush came in, right? Yeah. And I think he had another I think he had another couple of bats. I think he did something big off a lefty in the postseason. I Yeah, he pretty much played against lefties except the Ashby game. Yeah, I could be wrong on that. I’m pretty sure. Grades. Yeah. So, Michael Bush and and we’re going to get to some lineup stuff. first baseman, a pass, maybe first baseman in 2026. Uh, next, I would say Michael Bush is a A. He Yeah, I got to go with an A. Flat A. A for him. I I if I had to do I think he was snubbed. He was a gold glove finalist snub. I think if I had to do percentages, I’d give like Nico like a 96.1%. Bush like a 955. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Coming up next, some more on Michael Bush comes for space situation and realizing the bridge between Rizzo and Bush. Yikes. Stay tuned. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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Michael Bush was outstanding in 2025 for the Cubs, taking an allstar uh turn. And Justin Turner was was uh Bush’s backup. He has an option decision. Uh the Cubs do on him uh as as we’ll get into more option decisions in in the weeks ahead, but I don’t think they’re going to bring him back, right? And so you look at the Cubs first base situation, you feel great about Michael Bush. I do think by virtue of Turner, you know, being on his way out, Bush will get more time against lefties as we discussed earlier. Uh maybe they bring in a veteran who who could hit lefties as, you know, just another veteran guy that’s not Turner. Is it Santana? Is he still on the team or is he a free agent? He’s going to be a free agent as well. Okay. And I would get him get, you know, give him an F to preview our uh our, you know, maybe our our, you know, our segment later and the days ahead. I’m gonna go with an NA and not Oh, right. Yeah, that’s more appropriate. Yes. Yeah. But how do you feel about their first base situation as being one? Okay, I can put Michael Bush in pen and then do you trust the Cubs brass to figure out to bring in like a Tai France or or or bring back Turner, whoever? Yeah. See, I’ve been doing a lot of free agent research. You really have been. You really have been. Good for you. Um. Right. Yeah. I I trust them to do that. Um, you know, as long as it’s Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, do do you think it’s a given Turner’s gone? I do. It’s a It’s a expensive option. I think it’s 10 million. Oh, right. But I mean, like they could decline it and then maybe rein Oh, yeah. Yes. I I didn’t connect with with what you asked initially. Yeah. Like maybe, you know, because he seems like he likes he’s interested, right? It was, as you pointed out, it was a couple times. It was his first ever year really being a bench player. Yeah. I I think that I I think Does he want to do it a second time? I feel very similar feel very similar about first base and center field where it’s like as long as those guys are healthy, I feel rock solid. Um, you know, depthwise it’s it’s always a question mark, but I I think the Cubs have proven, you know, they’ll they’ll get they’ll get who they need. It’ll be some veteran type of backup. But, yeah, maybe maybe this is one of those situations where Bush does get a little bit of a runway uh to hit against left-handed pitching and and prove that he’s a an everyday uh uh you know, star player. I don’t know. I mean, I mean, I mean, he’s six home runs away from if he had 40 home runs, you know, that’s a that’s a star player. Absolutely, man. He would have had a 900 OPS and he probably should have. You know what I mean? So, Right. Listen, I’m all in for it. And his athleticism has been on full display. Yeah. I remember when they made the trade, it was like, well, this guy really hasn’t played first before, even though he did in college, but through the Dodger system, mostly second, you know, a sniff of third, even some some outfield. Uh, and for for the hallmark of the Cubs being defense before he got here, he has really just amplified that. and he’s uh he he not only made the routine play early on, but he really since April of 24 to now two full years over there, uh he’s been so dependable defensively as well. Yeah, he’s he he’s him and Shaw were both guys that you’re like, “Oh, you know, how are they going to be on defense?” And they both just, you know, uh uh no pun intended, just hit it out of the park. Uh, you know, I mean, Bush is really Well, that would be a hidden pun, though. Yeah. Right. Um, you know, they just fielded it really well over there. So, um, no, Bush is, uh, I feel really comfortable with him over there. U, it’s really steady. It’s so nice that people now we don’t have to talk about, well, maybe he’ll play third. It’s like, no, let’s just, you know, he’s going to play first base. And, uh, he’s really good at that. So, we could mix in some trivia here. This could be our trivia then. First baseman between Rizzo and Michael Bush. Oh, boy. This is games started you. We could do a full the full volume of these cats or we could do uh season by season. All right. Well, it’s up to you. What would you like to do? When did Rizzo uh Yeah, just the full volume. Okay, let’s do that. So, how many guys are you looking for? So, I’m looking for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I probably should have counted before showtime. Eight, nine, 10. Oh, no. So, you’re just talking 11. 11. Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no. Um, no, no, no. All right. And And does that include 25? Like, does that include turn? No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. So just just guys that have made starts at first before Michael Bush did and after Rizzo did. That’s right. And three guys did in 2021 if you wanted to start there, but up to you. No, I’m just going to go with the Okay, Schwindell. All right, so let me cross these out. Schwendell is right. Wisdom. Wisdom is correct. That was 22 and 21. Mancini. Mancini and 23. Um, Bellinger. Bellinger is correct, Sam. Oh, boy. Um, Bush took over in 24. I’m trying to And you said Schwindell, right? Yeah. Schwendell, Wisdom, Mancini, Bellinger, Alfonso, Rivas. That’s correct. Nice job. One, two, three, four, five, six names left. Yeah, I don’t I don’t know if I have six in my back pocket. Um, a lot of them were in 23. A lot of them were in 23. Okay. Yeah, I got four names here that started at first base in 23 in addition to the ones you already named. Yeah. And I should I mean that that 23 team we covered pretty extensively. Uh yeah, we were that was our first full season. Yeah. Uh, let me I’m trying to think of like maybe like a catcher situation. Nope. Yeah. No. Okay. Not even not We’re not even going there. Oh, actually there was, but that was the year before. Gomes. Um, who who who else do we have here? 2022. This catcher also played first a couple games. Catras. So, you were right. No, Catrus never played first during this time. I don’t see that on my sheets. No. Wow. Um, no. I don’t want to kill too much time with this because I I TJ Higgins was the right answer. Uh, also David Bod a few games in 22. Let’s try to get 23. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I got to lock in on 23 here. Four names here. Pretty obvious names except one. Okay. Okay. This is I’m I I apologize here. Um I’m just trying to think of 23 and where that team you I said belly. Yeah. Absolutely. roller coaster of a season. Yeah, 23 was weird. Just a horrible year. It’s not s I I blanket on like bench guys. Uh not all lefty hitters. That’s my clue for you. If that I don’t know if that helps. No, I’m just I’m just I’m just blanking. Um just just start saying some names. Jared Young. Oh, that would be the one you couldn’t have gotten. I forgot about Jared Young. He could have, I guess. But Eric Hosmer, who’s of course Hosmer, Matt MVvis. Oh, yeah. See, that’s Jame Jr. Cantalario. That’s who I blanked on. Okay, that’s a bad blank. It’s a bad blank. I forgot about that. Yeah, I my mind 23 seems like it’s just like a different galaxy now with these guys. I know we’re in How did I get Alfonso Revas and not get MVIS and Hosmer? Yeah, I know. Hosp played a lot that early in in the year. Then they just DFA him. Yes. 23 first base. That’s right. It was such a carousel. That would that’s the that’s the best term for it. I mean, goodness gracious. Hosmer MVIS forgot about Jamer, man. I look better. I forgive, you know, after Willie Castro. Did he play any first or No. No. All right. Coming up next, we start to name all the 2025 Cubs. There’s over 50 of them. We’ll explain next. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. 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Make sure you’re subscribed to Locked On Cubs on your preferred audio platform or YouTube. That way you don’t miss any of the great Cubs content we’ve got for you. All right, let me see if I could keep this straight. So, there’s nine regulars on offense this year for the Cubs. Uh, five guys who mainly made up the rotation, Horton, Boyd, Imanaga, Tyion, Ray, and then I’m going to add Justin Steel. So, that’s 15 players right there. Then you got the five short relievers we talked about time and time again. All of these people will be graded or they already have been and they’ve been talked about a ton even since the season ended. And that by the way that last five was Palencia, Keller, Theobbar, Pomerance, Kitridge. So that’s that’s 20 guys to to to eliminate right away. And there’s 30 more. So we’re going to attempt to grade 32 more over the course of, you know, I don’t know, a few episodes. Oh, I thought we had to name them now. We’re not naming them now. No, you know, because I don’t know that. Would you like to do pitchers or position players first? Sam, I’m just trying to think how many of these guys. Oh, and by the way, we don’t have to do a trivia style. I could just give you a name and we do like a rapid fire reaction, your memories of him, and then maybe a quick grade just for fun. Okay. Yeah, let’s do pitchers. Okay, pitchers. This excludes John Birdie and Reese Maguire. uh who pitched. Uh so there’s 20 other pitchers besides the one I mentioned. I uh what’s interesting about this is nine of the 20 had singledigit innings and three of the 20 had just two appearances a piece. Uh uh so there was some guys here who really just they came in for a day or two, they left like Jordan Wixs or somebody like that. Yeah. Yeah. So do you want Ethan like an Ethan Roberts or something? Right. Right. Okay. How do I grade those guys? All right. So, the guy who pitched the least amount this year was Luke Little. Yeah. Who once we thought maybe could have a a huge impact, a contribute, at least as a contributing role, a supporting actor, and he was up for literally a cup of coffee, water, whatever he prefers. And they sent him back to De Moine. Well, remember I think he came up against San Diego and he walked four straight guys, right? So, is that an incomplete or is that an F grade? Well, I don’t know how to grade any of these guys. So, you can just go over memories of them, too. Yeah. I mean, look, based off of expectation, I think my guess is Luke Little’s very disappointed that he didn’t have a major impact on the big league roster uh this year. I’m sure he’s so because of that, I would call it a I’ll just say it was a poor year for him. It was a unfortunate a step not in the right direction. How’s that? Yeah. I wonder if he’s a uh non-tender candidate uh next month. Uh we’ll see. Um this makes sense because we were just talking about 2023 being a different galaxy, but Sam, somehow Michael Fulmer pitched for the 2025 Cubs. Do you want me to grade three? I thought it was one game. It was two. Yeah. Do you want me to grade that or? No, but but isn’t it just so weird how he played for the Cubs this year? It’s it’s it’s mindboggling. I don’t even remember it. Did he pitch I don’t recall it. Do you know where who he pitched against? No, I don’t have that in front of me. I’m think I’m thinking Detroit against the Tigers maybe. No, cuz that’s now I got to look it up because he Michael because No, cuz he came from Detroit. It can’t be that. Right. I I He was a Tiger at one point. Right. Right. Right. That’s what I’m saying. Hold on. I’m going to see who he pitched against this year. No, I wasn’t even close. Uh he pitch What time of year was it? I’d like to know that. On the road in St. Louis. Uh he pitched the 23rd the 25th of June. Wow. The first half of the year. All right, let’s do a couple more names here. Uh, and did Fulmer make the whole year in 23 or was he DFA during the year? No, I think remember he actually ended up being decent down the stretch as like a middle to late reliever if I remember correctly. All right, we’re just going to do two more names and then it starts to heat up a little bit. We’ll do that later this week. Uh, so the other two names are lefty Tom Cosgrove and righty Brooks Krisky. And I I don’t have much to offer on those guys. Well, um, it’s funny looking back on it. It’s like these guys pitched Brooks Krisky. I’m trying I’m just trying to remember. It’s a lot. But I’m trying to name like think of I don’t remember Krisky. I don’t remember Costrove at all. I remember like I’m just trying to name some other guys like like Okay. Sroa, right? He’s He would be next. Savali. Yeah. Morgan. Eli Morgan. Did Gavin Howell, he pitched this year, right? Yeah. Genesis Cabrera. Oh, wow. So, there’s a lot of names on here. We’ll continue that as the week moves along, will we? Uh, yes. Okay. Um, we got other position players as well. 12 of them to be exact. Michael Bush, fantastic season. You know, it must be so nice. Let’s just close the show with this. You have a great year like that. And then you get to just, you know, November, uh, uh, the rest of October, November, December, and January. Just enjoy yourself. I mean, you’re a 40 home run guy. I mean, you know, in my eyes, at least until the new year. Nah, enjoy it till early February. This is Lockdown Cubs, part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. For your second listen, check out Lockdown MLB Game Night. Every game, every night, all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night at the Lockdown MLB channel on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. He’s Sam Olber. I’m Matt Cozy. This is Lockdown Cubs. Go Cubs.

We discuss the outstanding season by Michael Busch and how important the 1B position is for the Cubs. Plus: Starting to name EVERYONE who played for the 2025 Cubs.

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