How Cubs first baseman Michael Busch 'earned' everyday role, at-bats against left-handed pitchers

MESA, Ariz. — Cubs first baseman Michael Busch’s transition to hitting left-handed pitching will take some level of trial and error.

Busch, 28, was the left-handed side of a loose platoon for the first two full seasons of his major-league career. He's started consistently against right-handed hitting. But against tough southpaw matchups, the Cubs have always had right-handed hitters — or for parts of 2024, left-handed hitting Cody Bellinger, who has even splits — available to come off the bench or start in his place.

At the end of last year, the coaching staff discussed getting Busch plenty of reps against left-handed pitching.

“He's earned it,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “He's had this in his mind for a couple years that he wants to be the everyday first baseman.”

That was the plan going into spring training, but backup first baseman Tyler Austin was on the roster as a right-handed option off the bench. With Austin now expected to be out for “months” while recovering from knee surgery, Busch doesn't even have a safety net anymore.

“Obviously excited about that opportunity,” Busch said recently. “And then I think one thing is just working hard with the hitting coaches, trying to figure out ways mechanically, or even just approach wise [to improve.”

Busch only got 95 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers last season. He had a .642 OPS in those matchups, compared to his .910 OPS against right-handers.

By midseason, however, it became clear that regardless of the opposing pitcher, Busch was often the stronger all-around option over veteran right-handed hitter Justin Turner.

Busch was in the starting lineup against a left-handed opposing pitcher 10 times last season, eight of which fell in a two-month span from early June to early August.

At the start of September, the Cubs signed veteran switch-hitting first baseman Carlos Santana, who briefly served as the other side of the first base platoon. But he didn’t make the playoff roster.

Instead, Busch started all but one postseason game at first base. The only exception was Game 2 of the National League Division Series, when the Brewers chose left-hander Aaron Ashby as the opener for a bullpen day.

Having Ashby pitch in back-to-back games seemed to be Brewers manager Pat Murphy's antidote for Busch, who led off Game 1 against Milwaukee ace Freddy Peralta with a home run.

“By the end of the year, it was very interesting how you could feel this flip in how the other team viewed him,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said this spring. “… The other team was telling you everything you need to know: he’s become a dangerous, dangerous hitter.”

Busch was the Cubs’ best hitter in the playoffs. He recorded four home runs and a .296 batting average, melding frequent contact and power.

“In the postseason, there's so many emotions, and so much looking forward to things, or your at-bats,” Busch said. “But trusting your routine was probably the biggest takeaway for me, in that it really does help. It helps you focus when your mind doesn't want you to focus. And so I thought that was pretty cool.”

Now Busch is in the late stages of a common progression for talented left-handed hitters. Many have to prove themselves in the big-leagues before getting the chance to face lefty pitching.

Same-sided matchups generally play in the pitcher's favor. But because there are fewer left-handed pitchers, lefty hitters simply get fewer chances to experience those matchups in their baseball lives.

Teams also have left-handed specialists who have built careers around facing left-handed pockets of the lineup.

“These past two years, he's murdered righties,” Kelly said of Busch. “So he is the left-handed batter in our lineup that every pitching staff has somebody to go and attack.”

Regardless of production, Busch’s strike zone awareness has held steady no matter the handedness of the pitcher.

“So, I didn't really want to toggle with too much,” Busch said. “But trying to find a little something to maybe just help me perform a little better against lefties.”

Busch has talked through different options with the coaching staff. Then he uses the left-handed pitching machine and the Trajekt machine, which mimics specific pitchers’ arsenals, to experiment.

“Do we open up a little bit more?” Kelly said. “Do we close off a little bit more? Are we going to try and pick up a release point that's a little bit further on the first-base side so you have to orient your body?”

So far in Cactus League play, Busch has had six at-bats against left-handed pitchers and recorded two doubles, according to Statcast.

“There's a time for everything,” Busch said. “There's a time for mechanics, there's a time for approach. There's a time for confidence, there's a time for humility. And then there's a time for testing that stuff.”