Michael Busch has been on an absolute tear lately.
Since June 25, he’s 19-for-39 (.487) with six home runs, 12 RBIs, one stolen base, three walks and 10 strikeouts. He’s helped power the Chicago Cubs to an 8-3 record in that span and remain in first place in the National League Central, with a 3.5-game lead over the Brewers and a 6.5-game lead over the Cardinals.
The hot streak has raised his batting average to .297 on the season, the highest it’s been since the Cubs’ 17th game of the season. It also puts him fifth in MLB with an OPS+ of 171, behind only Shohei Ohtani (175), Will Smith (179), Cal Raleigh (193) and Aaron Judge (233).
OPS+ is a stat that takes a player’s on-base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league. It accounts for external factors like ballparks, per MLB.com, and 100 is league average.
If Busch, 27, is able to maintain an OPS+ of 171 from an incredible first half of the season, he’d join some of MLB’s all-time great first basemen. The only NL first basemen to post an OPS+ of 170 or greater in a single season in the Wild Card Era are Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols, Freddie Freeman, Jeff Bagwell, Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto and Derrek Lee.
Michael Busch enters play on Monday with a 170 OPS+.
Here are the only NL 1B to post an OPS+ of 170 or greater in a single season in the Wild Card Era:
Mark McGwire
Albert Pujols
Freddie Freeman
Jeff Bagwell
Paul Goldschmidt
Joey Votto
Derrek LeeThat’s it.
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Busch’s breakout year in his second season in the majors is a big reason why the Cubs have the fourth-most wins in MLB at 54-36. His OPS is up from .775 last season to .950 this year, and he’s third among all first basemen with 2.7 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, behind Matt Olson and Pete Alonso at 2.9.
The Cubs acquired Busch and right-handed pitcher Yency Almonte before the 2024 in a trade that sent left-handed pitching prospect Jackson Ferris and outfield prospect Zyhir Hope to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hope, 20, was an 11th round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft by the Cubs and had played just 11 games in the Arizona Complex League before being traded. But he has since become the Dodgers No. 2 prospect and No. 37 in the MLB Pipeline, and currently has an .876 OPS for the High-A Great Lakes Loons. Ferris, 21, was the Cubs’ No. 8 prospect when traded, but he’s now ranked No. 4 among Dodgers prospects and No. 69 in the MLB Pipeline with a 5.54 ERA in Double-A.
It took a lot to acquire Busch, but both prospects the Cubs gave up still have a long way to go before reaching the majors, while Busch has been one of MLB’s best first basemen this season as the Cubs push for the playoffs.
