The Chicago Cubs have a problem that nobody is talking about, and it could be detrimental to the team’s success this season.
The obvious problem for the Cubs is starting pitching, but the underlying problem for Chicago is the five-spot in the batting order.
Typically manned by Dansby Swanson or Pete Crow-Armstrong based on the pitching matchup, they have not done a great job in this spot.
In 37 at-bats in the five-spot, Crow-Armstrong has a .680 OPS. In 194 at-bats in the five-spot, Swanson has a .684 OPS.
For Swanson, he’s even worse with runners on and in scoring position. With runners on, Swanson is slashing just .184/.254/.288 in 125 at-bats. With runners in scoring position, he is slashing .150/.209/.225 in 80 at-bats.
Swanson’s lack of clutch this season has been hard to watch for Cubs fans, but it doesn’t look like manager Craig Counsell is going to take him out of this role.
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Counsell likes to alternate batters based on handedness, and with Happ, Tucker and Suzuki not moving from the top three spots there’s only a couple of options for the five-spot.
Two players that Counsell really needs to consider in the five-spot are Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner.
Busch and Hoerner are putting together great campaigns, partly because they excel in opportunities with runners on and in scoring position.
Busch is slashing .264/.376/.491 in 106 at-bats with runners on and .358/.469/.627 in 67 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Hoerner is slashing .323/.357/.414 in 133 at-bats with runners on and .397/.424/.487 in 78 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The Cubs need to address this issue before it’s too late, because the pitching staff is unpredictable and the offense needs to score as many runs as possible to win games right now.
More MLB: Should the Cubs pursue a rental or a multi-year pitcher at trade deadline?
