Anytime a team makes a major move, one of the fun things to think about is how the lineup might now look.
For the Cubs after the Kyle Tucker trade, it’s a little trickier because they still currently have Cody Bellinger, and if you ignored literally everything else about the situation, it’d be fun to plop his name in there. Maybe Michael Busch can play third base! Then Cody goes to first base! Everyone stays!
Setting aside the prevailing belief that Busch probably can’t play well enough at third base to hold down that job (and he was quite good at first base!), keeping all of these guys just isn’t going to happen. We’ve known for a long time that the Cubs are going to trade Bellinger. Keeping him would be a profoundly inefficient use of resources, and the Cubs want to put those dollars to use elsewhere. So it’s happening (assuming they don’t trade Seiya Suzuki, but even then, you’re still wasting some defensive value by having Bellinger/Tucker DH a lot of the time or whatever).
That is to say, when thinking about the possible Cubs lineup post-Tucker, we have to chop Bellinger out of the mix, even though he’s still on the roster.
So maybe the best lineup right now looks something like this:
1. Ian Happ, LF2. Kyle Tucker, RF3. Seiya Suzuki, DH4. Michael Busch, 1B5. Dansby Swanson, SS6. Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF7. Nico Hoerner, 2B8. Miguel Amaya/Carson Kelly, C9. Matt Shaw, 3B
That last spot could obviously be an external addition if one is made, and whoever it is doesn’t have to be the 9-hitter (that could be Hoerner if you want a double lead-off man), but the point for these purposes is that it’s probably not going to be a middle-of-the-order-type bat. I don’t think the Cubs are adding anyone like that.
Looking at that group, I love the idea of having those top four coming right at the opposing pitcher from the jump, but then the second half of the lineup leaves a lot of questions. That’s kind of the nature of this group – the trio of top defenders are in there – but it’s worth pointing out that every single one of Swanson, PCA, Hoerner, and Amaya have shown the ability to be above-average overall bats. Can you expect all four to do it for the full season in 2025? No. Highly unlikely. But it is possible, and they do have a reasonable floor built in. On paper, to my eye, if everyone stayed healthy, that looks like an above-average offense, with the potential to be well above-average.
Good balance in that group, with three lefties, a switch-hitter, and five righties. You’d probably like to add another utility lefty to move in and out of the lineup periodically (hey, what if Gage Workman really surprises?!), and that might be something the Cubs target on the bench.
Also? It looks like a lineup that doesn’t strike out very often. Not that you look for that specifically in a given lineup – production is production – but it stands out.
Would I love to have another plus bat in there? Absolutely. But, realistically, I don’t see it happening outside of some SIGNIFICANT surprises from here. If the Cubs wind up trading Nico Hoerner, and if Busch – rather than playing third – can play some second base? And the Cubs go get Pete Alonso or something crazy? OK, I mean, yeah, that’d be a huge offensive upgrade in the short-term. I just think it’s very unlikely.
More realistically, the Cubs add a short-term flyer and/or lefty utility type at third base until Shaw is ready, and that fractionally upgrades the lineup or at least improves match-ups.
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