Michael Busch’s 2026 season has been easy to miss in a Cubs lineup that has piled up runs behind names like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman. But while the offense around him has done plenty of the heavy lifting, Busch has quietly started to catch fire at exactly the right moment.
That matters because this has been a step back from his 2025 breakout. Last year, the 28-year-old led the Cubs with 34 home runs and posted a .866 OPS and a .523 slugging percentage. This season, he hasn’t matched that level of thump, with his slugging down to .395 and his hard-hit rate slipping by nearly 7.5%.
Even so, the Cubs haven’t needed him to carry the offense every night. Their lineup has been good enough to absorb the dip. Now, though, Busch is heating up as the club fights through a tight NL Wild Card race.
Over his last 26 plate appearances, Busch is hitting .300/.423/.500 with a .923 OPS. He has six RBI, five walks, a stolen base, and six runs scored in that span. It’s a small sample, but with the season entering its final stretch, those kinds of at-bats carry real weight.
The timing has lined up with a key push in the standings. Entering play Tuesday, the Cubs sat atop the NL Wild Card standings by a half-game over the Philadelphia Phillies and held a 1.5-game edge over the surging San Diego Padres, who have won eight straight while the Cubs and Phillies have treaded water.
Busch’s recent surge also carried over from the weekend. Against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he went 5-for-11 with four RBI as the Cubs took two of three at Wrigley Field.
Then came Monday’s opener against the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves, and even without a hit, Busch still found a way to matter. He worked two walks, scored a run, and helped the Cubs to a 7-3 win.
That game fit the broader picture of what Busch has improved this season. He’s shown more patience at the plate, lifting his walk rate to 12.7% from 9.5% a year ago. His strikeout rate has also ticked down to 23.1% from 23.5%, and he was striking out 28.6% of the time in his first season with the Cubs in 2024.
Another important step forward has come against left-handed pitching. In 2025, Craig Counsell often sat Busch versus southpaws.
He hit just .207 with a .642 OPS in 95 plate appearances against them, compared to a .910 OPS against righties. This year, he’s been in the lineup far more often against lefties, and he has already logged 190 plate appearances in those matchups while hitting .228/.332/.401 for a .733 OPS.
Those numbers aren’t eye-popping, but they do point in the right direction.
Busch has also continued to deliver when it counts most. Over his last two seasons, his production with runners in scoring position has stood out, and that has held up this year as well. He’s batting .285 with 54 RBI and a .793 OPS in those situations.
The Cubs will be hoping this recent stretch lasts, because October Busch has already shown what he can do. In his first career postseason last year, he put up a 1.128 OPS in 31 plate appearances. If Chicago is going to make noise again, that kind of version of Busch could be a big part of it.
In Other News...
Former Cubs Draft Pick Just Lost His Shot At October
Rob Zastryznys season took another turn this week when the Milwaukee Brewers designated the former Cubs draft pick for assignment after a minor-league rehab assignment, closing the book on what had been a possible route back into a postseason bullpen. Injuries and a drop in velocity have clouded his 2026 campaign, and the timing leaves little room for another club to jump in and turn him into an October option.
For the Cubs, it is another reminder that bullpen help is more likely to come from within than from a familiar name elsewhere. Chicago has already been looking at its own internal arms for late-season support, with Gavin Hollowell among the pitchers in the conversation, while Zastryznys path now looks more like a reset than a race to the playoffs. [Read more 🡒]
Cubs' October Lineup Debate Just Got A Lot More Interesting
Dansby Swanson is expected back with the Cubs this weekend, and his return should give Chicago the kind of full-strength position-player group teams spend all summer trying to preserve for October. It also pushes the playoff conversation into a more interesting place, because the Cubs now have to map out how they want to balance their best defenders, their most dangerous bats and the matchups that can tilt a short series.
Michael Busch, Ian Happ and Michael Conforto are all part of that planning, and the shape of the lineup could change depending on whether the opponent is starting a right-hander or a left-hander. Once the games matter most, the question is no longer who belongs on the roster, but who gets the at-bats when every decision feels like it could decide an inning, a game or an entire series. [Read more 🡒]
Pete Crow-Armstrong Is Turning The Cubs' MVP Dream Into A Rout
Pete Crow-Armstrong has gone from exciting young centerpiece to the kind of player who can shape an entire MVP race. His 2026 season has stood out on both sides of the ball, with the Cubs benefiting from impact offense and elite defense in center field, the sort of all-around profile that gives a team real star power every night.
Bradford Doolittles AXE metric at ESPN reflects just how far ahead Crow-Armstrong has pulled from the rest of the National League field. With some of the other usual contenders dealing with injuries, including Shohei Ohtani, the Cubs are watching the conversation narrow around their own breakout star, and the rest of the league may be running out of time to catch him. [Read more 🡒]