3 Cubs Right-Handed Hitters Who Need to Step Up

The Chicago Cubs have an interesting split going on. Right-handed hitters have hovered around or below a 100 wRC+, while lefties have been much better. As explored by our own @Yirsandy Rodríguez this all came to fruition even after the Cubs effectively swapped Kyle Tucker for Alex Bregman. In this article, we’ll go over three right-handed hitters who need to step up for a squad that’s aiming to turn the season around.

Dansby Swanson

Swanson is the first name that deserves plenty of attention. While he was once a No. 1 overall pick and has one of the better gloves in all of professional baseball, the bat has been lagging behind with his struggles lying in a couple of areas. For starters, he just isn’t hitting the ball very hard. That all starts with bat speed. Swanson is swinging, on average, at 71.2 miles per hour, putting him in the 36th percentile. That below-average metric has a domino effect on a few other analytics, as Swanson has also clocked in an average hard-hit percentage of 41.2% (49th percentile) and a below-average barrel rate of 7.2% (40th percentile).

This is more than just a quality of contact issue, though. Swanson is hitting a career-worst .180 with just a .285 on-base percentage, and a huge reason for that is his lack of contact. The former Vanderbilt Commodore is striking out 23.3% of the time, dropping him in the 36th percentile among big league hitters. His whiff rate is even further below the league-average watermark, as his 30.5% mark has him in the 18th percentile. 

An elite baserunner and fielder, Swanson will always have a high floor. But he'll never live up to his ceiling with this kind performance at the plate.

Seiya Suzuki

It’s a contract year for Seiya Suzuki, yet so far in 2026, his bat hasn’t produced quite the level of production we saw from him just a season ago. While Suzuki does have nine homers in just a little over 200 trips to the plate, the real issue has lied in his in-zone contact. Suzuki doesn’t venture out of the zone much, as he finds himself in the 83rd percentile in chase rate. However, he’s whiffing almost 27% of the time, which is one of the higher marks in MLB.

Suzuki’s walk percentage is up a tick, operating at 11%, a sign of his improved plate approach. Yet the 31-year-old has struggled against secondaries, with batting averages below the Mendoza line against both off-speed and breaking pitches. His hard-hit rate, barrel percentage, and bat speed are all better than the league average, so it’s really about just making contact more often and capitalizing from there. 

Alex Bregman

Last, but certainly not least, the Cubs need more out of their star third baseman. Alex Bregman signed a five-year, $175 million contract with the North Siders this past offseason, just months removed from his one-year stint with the Boston Red Sox. 

Approach-wise, Bregman has done his job and proven to be a savvy veteran on this Cubs’ offense. He is among the top quarter of the league in squared-up rate (89th percentile), chase rate (88th percentile), whiff rate (83rd percentile) and strikeout rate (73rd percentile), yet the hard-hit numbers have not been there for the 32-year-old. The former Houston Astros corner infielder has a below average hard-hit rate and just a .681 OPS in his first season with the Cubs.

He remains an elite defender at third base (+3 outs above average), but much like Swanson, the bat simply needs to improve to be worth the value of Bregman’s contract.