{"id":54991,"date":"2025-05-13T21:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=54991"},"modified":"2025-05-13T21:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:24:21","slug":"cubs-call-up-star-prospect-as-ian-happ-hits-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=54991","title":{"rendered":"Cubs call up star prospect as Ian Happ hits IL"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>The Chicago Cubs will be without Ian Happ for a while, as the infielder\/outfielder is expected to hit the 10-day disabled list because of an oblique issue.<\/p>\n<p>With Happ, who has missed the last three Chicago games, not available, Chicago has promoted star prospect Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros from the minors. He can make his big league debut this Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins in the second game of a three-leg series at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreaking News \u2013 The Cubs will call up C\/ DH Moises Ballesteros from Triple-A Iowa. He will likely be in the starting lineup tomorrow. Ian Happ to go on IL with oblique issue,\u201d shared Bruce Levine of The 670 Score via a post on X on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Ballesteros played first base and catcher in the minors, but he might not play either role against the Marlins. For one, the Cubs may find it hard to have his start over catcher Carson Kelly, who boasts a 1.114 OPS so far in the 2025 MLB regular season. Meanwhile, Michael Busch, at first base, is hitting .267\/.353\/.533 in his last five games.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Related Chicago Cubs NewsArticle continues below<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>However, Busch also went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in Monday&#8217;s 5-2 victory against Miami. A designated hitter role could be in the offing for Ballesteros. Chicago is just 16th in the big leagues in 2025 with just a 100 wRC+ in the designated hitter position, as Justin Turner is hitting only .155 to date. Meanwhile, Seiya Suzuki, the most-used DH by the Cubs, is hitting .245\/.306\/.510.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of which position Ballesteros will occupy, Cubs fans will have their attention on him once he sets foot at the plate. The 21-year-old Venezuelan is a career .288\/.371\/.459 hitter in the minor leagues with 50 home runs and 218 RBIs. He has turned heads with his performance at the plate in 2025 with Triple-A Iowa Cubs. slashing .368\/.420\/.522 with four home runs and 18 RBIs through 34 games and 150 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully for the Cubs, Ballesteros will be able to cover for what they&#8217;re missing from Happ&#8217;s bat. On the season, the 30-year-old Happ is hitting .269\/.364\/.381 with three home runs with 19 RBIs and an OPS+ of 114.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Rexwell Villas is an experienced sports writer covering a variety of sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college football. He&#8217;s a Communications Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cubs are all set to let top hitting prospect Moises Ballesteros make his debut this Tuesday against the Marlins amid Ian Happ&#8217;s injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":54992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[282,200,44,694],"class_list":["post-54991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-ian-happ","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-injury"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cubs call up star prospect as Ian Happ hits IL - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=54991\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cubs call up star prospect as Ian Happ hits IL - 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