Chicago Cubs: Michael Busch, big bats are struggling out of the gate

The first 13 games for the Chicago Cubs, albeit a very small sample size, have been very “meh”. They fell to 6-7 on Friday after a tough 2-0 loss to the Pirates in which a six inning no-hit effort by Shota Imanaga was all for naught. The big bats simply did not come through, despite traffic on the bases all day. An inconsistent offense so far can be attributed to many of the big bats getting off to slow starts.

This includes Alex Bregman, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch, and Dansby Swanson. The team’s wRC+ is pretty middle-of-the-road so far (18th), which makes sense, as they have had some good offensive days but also a lot of bad ones.

Some notable Cubs hitters are struggling so far this season:

Bregman: .192 AVG | .603 OPS | 77 wRC+
PCA: .216 AVG | .539 OPS | 55 wRC+
Swanson: .140 AVG | .502 OPS | 54 wRC+
Busch: .125 AVG | .399 OPS | 25 wRC+

Chicago’s 96 wRC+ as a team ranks 18th in MLB. pic.twitter.com/V7N1dqFBpf

— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) April 10, 2026

What to make of slow starts for Chicago Cubs

One thing to emphasize, it’s still a pretty small sample size. Ebbs and flows are part of the game, and plenty of players get off to slow starts; it’s not an indictment of what a season will be. Especially when the weather directly impacts games at Wrigley Field. With that said, it would not be ideal to dig a deep hole early in what could be a tough NL Central and making things harder by needing to dig out.

As for these individual players, the back of the baseball cards will say it won’t last. Bregman’s lowest OPS month in his career is March/April (.767), it’s the only month he sports a career sub-.800 OPS. Swanson is a notoriously streaky hitter, and he usually ends up with a .240 average, 100-110 wRC+, and 20 homers by season’s end. Busch has had some close calls on flyballs, where he seems to be off by nanometers. Crow-Armstrong is still young and a bit of an uncertainly. He came into Friday’s game with a 41.9% groundball rate, just not driving the ball.

Something to note is that the Cubs as a team are among the leaders in Hard Hit% (45.3% on Friday afternoon) and Exit Velocity (90.1% on Friday afternoon), both of which are in the top 10 in baseball. They are also among the 10 teams with an expected slug .400 or higher. Both Bregman and Swanson are within the 90+ percentile in Hard Hit%. Hopefully, more consistent results on the scorecard follow.

Sooner rather than later is ideal

While one might now worry they will come around, as mentioned before, it’s just not ideal to dig too deep a hole early. Luckily, the Cubs have gotten offensive contributions from others lately, like Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, and Miguel Amaya. The bats put on a show in the final two games in Tampa Bay, to their credit.

With that said, finding more consistency offensively lies within key bats like Bregman, Crow-Armstrong, and Busch.

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