Source: Cubs to Promote Moises Ballesteros Tuesday; Ian Happ Will Land on Injured List

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

It wasn't easy for Moises Ballesteros to force his way into the 2025 Chicago Cubs' plans. He's not yet ready to contribute meaningfully as a catcher, and even if he were, the Cubs are very happy with their combination of Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya. Meanwhile, the left-handed Ballesteros is a tricky fit for either first base or designated hitter, since he makes an imperfect backup to the lefty-hitting Michael Busch and since Seiya Suzuki has been excellent and durable at DH.

Knock loudly enough and long enough on the gate, though, and eventually, the majors will make way for you. That's exactly what Ballesteros has done. He raked last year at the two highest levels of the minor leagues, and then went to the Arizona Fall League and raked some more. He showed up in Des Moines this spring and hit .368/.420/.522 over his first 150 plate appearances, which gives him a .311 average and solid pop across his first 435 PAs for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. He put himself squarely at the front of the line for the next opportunity that arose.

Unfortunately, that opportunity comes in the form of Ian Happ landing on the injured list. Happ's oblique has been bothering him for several days and kept him out of the lineup since Saturday, and the Cubs now feel they need to place him on the shelf. He could stay there for a few weeks, since oblique issues requires a player to wait until they can take each step of their rehab without pain or reaggravation. It's bad news, because Happ is such a vital part of both the team's defensive phalanx in the outfield and their lineup. However, the fact that they can slide Suzuki out to left field on most days and play Ballesteros in Happ's stead as the DH is a wonderful luxury.

Ballesteros, a short and explosive 21-year-old, comes up looking to prove that he can generate consistent power against the best pitchers in the world. He's just 5-foot-8, but has a 106.5 90th-percentile exit velocity this year, better than almost 80% of his Triple-A cohort. He's an aggressive hitter, but one with a good feel for contact against soft stuff, and he hasn't been overmatched against mid- and upper-90s heat since reaching Iowa. That doesn't mean he'll be a star for the team right away. He might not even become a part of their long-term plans, given his defensive shortcomings and the risk that his size will make it impossible for him to hit for sufficient power to carry such a profile. For now, however, he's a very good bit of backfill for a lineup that has been one of the best in baseball already. 

Presumably, Justin Turner will start over Ballesteros whenever the Cubs face a left-handed starting pitcher, as they're slated to do Wednesday. Against righties, though, Ballesteros will join a cluster of lefty bats that will make life very difficult for opposing staffs. Ideally, the team would lean a bit less to the left, since Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, Busch and Ballesteros now figure to be among the five best hitters in the lineup against righties for a while. Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson have been good enough to slide up in the order a bit if needed, though, and if nothing else, Ballesteros will restore the feeling of depth and danger that leeched out of the team when Happ exited the lineup and Crow-Armstrong moved to the leadoff spot over the weekend.

The exact role Ballesteros will fill and the length of his stay are hard to predict. To be sure, though, he'll get a chance to chip in over the next fortnight, as the team tries to take advantage of the soft stretch ahead in their schedule. He's not yet on the 40-man roster, so the Cubs will have to jettison someone therefrom in the process of promoting him, but they still have plenty of detritus on the roster. Although the team will miss Happ for the duration of his absence, this is an exciting way to stop the gap he leaves.

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