Eighth in the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 third-year first baseman.<\/p>\n
Michael Busch<\/a>, drafted in the first round (2019) by the Dodgers (31st overall, from UNC), and later acquired by the Cubs for second-round pick Jackson Ferris and minor leaguer Zyhir Hope, has paid dividends since being installed as the Cubs first baseman. He has turned in 2.8 and 4.6 bWAR<\/a> seasons (2.2 and 3.5 fWAR<\/a>). In 2025, he turned in a line of .261\/.343\/.523, swatting 34 home runs and batting in 90 runs. His defense was splendid as well.<\/p>\n Busch isn\u2019t yet a star, but he will be if he equals or beats last year\u2019s numbers, which is certainly possible. He got some downballot votes for the league\u2019s MVP award, coming in 16th.<\/p>\n He\u2019s said to be looking at hitting more against left-handers, though that will likely be based somewhat on Spring Training results, as there are right-handed batters around that would like those at-bats as well. Projections have him in the 25\/75 zone. Of course we\u2019d like better numbers, but those would do, along with his 60 or so walks.<\/p>\n He leads off sometimes, in Craig Counsell\u2019s liquid batting order, and also hits 3,4,5. Any of those spots are good \u2014 Busch doesn\u2019t seem to change his game any, no matter where he hits. Third or fifth might be best, where he can hit ahead of\/behind powerful right-handed hitters like Alex Bregman and Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ, our next subject, can lead off against right-handers and enjoy similar benefits batting ahead of Bregman or Suzuki or even Nico Hoerner, who in another era would be the pluperfect #2 hitter.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll have to wait and see what the genius of Craig Counsell comes up with, but penciling Busch in for 25 long balls, 75 RBI, and a .330 or so OBP feels pretty good. I suspect he\u2019ll do quite a bit better than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighth in the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 third-year first baseman. Michael Busch, drafted in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,70392,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-552830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicago-cubs-player-profiles","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}