When the offseason began, the Cubs had clear needs at first and third base. Meanwhile, the Dodgers had a top prospect in Michael Busch with experience at both positions but who was blocked at the major league level.
Busch was ranked at the top of their farm system, but with Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy occupying the defensive positions he could play and Shohei Ohtani their new designated hitter, Busch’s chances for plate appearances were going to be limited. So, Los Angeles was in a position to move him.
On Thursday, the Cubs acquired Busch along with reliever Yency Almonte in a trade with the Dodgers, and by Friday evening, Busch was meeting his new team and the fans at the Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. That same night, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said he expects Busch to have a spot on the major league roster come Opening Day.
The Cubs are going to want to give Busch’s bat a try in the lineup; he has a .919 OPS in four minor league seasons. But, like the Dodgers, the question will be where he best fits defensively. There are openings, and Hoyer and Co. are leaning toward one in particular.
“He’s certainly going to play,” Hoyer said. “There’s no question. It’s up to Craig where. I think first base is obviously a natural spot for him. He’s played there a lot.”
“How the rest of the offseason plays out, we’ll see, but the mindset is that first base is the most natural spot for him.”
There’s the possibility that the Cubs sign someone to be their first baseman or their primary designated hitter. They’ve been linked to Rhys Hoskins this offseason, and you’d quickly lose count keeping up with how many times Cody Bellinger’s name came up during the convention weekend. Either player would cut down how many looks at first Busch would get, but his ability to play multiple spots was part of why the Cubs traded for him.
“Certainly his versatility is also attractive,” Hoyer said. “Obviously, in the minor leagues, he’s performed incredibly well.”
Busch played mostly at third base during his 27 games in the majors in 2023, but he also spent time at second, first and in the outfield. In the minor leagues, Busch logged his most innings at second base. But as was the case in Los Angeles, the Cubs don’t need a second baseman.
Like Hoyer, general manager Carter Hawkins expects that Busch will be on the Opening Day roster and primarily as a first baseman. Right now, that is arguably the weakest spot on the Cubs’ depth chart, but Hawkins said they scouted him at first base and were pleased with what they saw.
“That’s kind of the easy plug and play,” Hawkins said of Busch. “He’s got a lot of really good reviews over there [at first base] defensively from our scouts that have seen him, from talking to the Dodgers [and] from obviously seeing him over there.”
If the priority is getting him as many plate appearances as possible, then first base is a natural fit. Provided that Nico Hoerner stays healthy, Busch isn’t getting many starts at second, and even though third base is not solidified, the Cubs have a trio of possibilities there in Christopher Morel, Nick Madrigal and Patrick Wisdom. They have also been loosely connected to free agent Matt Chapman.
In his three seasons at North Carolina, Busch played 158 of his 194 games at first base. It seems safe to assume he could fairly easily get comfortable with playing there predominately again despite spending most of his minor league career elsewhere in the field.
“Just getting a bunch of innings under my belt,” Busch said of the process. “Obviously, I played a lot of first in college. I played a little around the infield, even getting to the outfield in the minor leagues. Just the reps, the reps of getting out there and hammering out fifty ground balls, and you feel a little more comfortable each day.”
But what about the numbers he put up at the plate while with the Dodgers in ‘23? If the expectation is that he will produce for the Cubs offensively, thus making it a priority to find a spot for him on defense, fans might balk at the .539 OPS and -0.5 WAR he posted.
But that was also in just 81 plate appearances spread across sporadic starts from April to September. Busch was optioned four times during the season and only got consistent starts during a pair of nine-day stretches in June and August.
Busch is hardly the first highly-touted prospect to come up and struggle at the plate during an initial look at major league pitching. But in Triple-A last year, he batted .323 with 27 home runs and 85 RBI in 98 games. The potential for Busch to make an impact at the plate is there.
The most useful takeaway from his cup of coffee in 2023 is that Busch got a chance to go up against major league pitching. Those 81 plate appearances showed him what he will need to work on in order to be successful in the big leagues.
“Experience over the course of my career has been big, so being able to experience it and just learn and take it in and adjust off of that,” Busch said. “I’ve been able to get up there, kind of experience, get my feet wet, and learn. Learn from guys, learn from good players and see what they do and try to apply it to my game.”
