Michael Busch's October Legacy Is Just Getting Started

[RavenCub30]

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Getting their first taste of playoff success in eight long years, the whole Chicago Cubs organization from top to bottom viscerally experienced how satisfying and cinematic October baseball really is. For nearly a fortnight, Michael Busch was the lead actor in the film. And what a picture it was. Of course, the scene could have never been set in such a way had the Los Angeles Dodgers not generously gifted the prolific bopper to the Cubbies at the outset of the 2024 campaign. Despite the agonizing fashion in which the Milwaukee Brewers dispatched Busch's club from the 2025 postseason proceedings, he proved through power, consistency, and tremendous baseball acumen that he is the prototype for what a Chicago Cub should be under the bright lights of the postseason.

The long ball is unequivocally the most exciting play in baseball. Yielding various measures of success, Michael Busch dialed it up frequently. On three occasions, the first baseman, out of the leadoff spot for the North Siders, pelted Brewers' pitching for dingers. Now, of course, they didn't all hold up, especially his blast in Game 1, but what he did do is what any manager wants from the top spot in the lineup: give the other team a problem to figure out. That Craig Counsell's pitching staff looked absolutely gassed in this series isn't Busch's fault.

Stretching the bigger picture out just a bit, a good deal of what informed Busch's playoff success is his plate discipline. In 2025, he only put forth a chase rate of 23.6%, challenging opposing pitchers from all 29 of the other MLB teams to really throw something nasty to get him to expand the zone. His hard-hit rate also jumped from 39.9% in 2024 to 47.3% in 2025. Busch is seeing the ball better, and swinging at better pitches. From a standpoint of what his value to the club equated to in the NLDS, he didn't necessarily create scoring opportunities for the rest of the top of the order, because he was the scoring opportunity. It certainly transformed how Pat Murphy decided how to go after Nico Hoerner, Kyle Tucker, and Seiya Suzuki. In the cases of Hoerner and Suzuki, it didn't much matter, even though they bring much different approaches to the plate, they were still able to come through in clutch situations, at least in the two games at Wrigley Field. 

Operating in the unenviable position of fielding questions as to what went wrong for this Cubs team, not a single member of the top brass in the organization can point to a thing that was done by Michael Busch. It wasn't just his on-field performance that cemented his place as a Cubby playoff hero, it's the electric energy and pure joy he exudes that makes him one of the primary leaders of this squad. Capturing the imaginations of supporters and media professionals alike, Busch's postseason heroics in 2025 garnered a tribute from the great Mully and Haugh of 670 The Score, commemorating the slugger's efforts with a hysterical "beer for breakfast" Busch Light salute live on-air last week. If that's not respect, I don't know what is.

 

What made Michael Busch's play in this postseason great is the same thing that made his squad's abrupt exit from the playoffs agonizing: He showed that this team has more baseball in them. Save for some mightily perplexing managerial choices and lack of depth from the rotation, the Cubs could be taking batting practice at Dodger Stadium right now. They're not, and Busch, brilliant as he was, can't do it alone. In fact, he might be doing it with a significantly new-look Cubs' lineup in 2026 pending the departure of free agent right fielder Kyle Tucker. Some known commodities will be plugged in to various positions for Chicago next season, but how they will mesh together remains to be seen. 

What simply cannot be overlooked is this: The Cubs are a very good baseball team and delivered a catalog's worth of memorable moments in 2025. It always seemed like Busch was in the middle of those moments. Playing for a fanbase starved for postseason success, the first baseman provided the kind of nourishment this city, and this team, had been waiting for.

View full article