Projecting the Chicago Cubs' 2025 Opening Day Lineup After Kyle Tucker Trade

Welcome to Chicago, Kyle Tucker! The Cubs got their guy, and now it is time to look ahead at how Craig Counsell will craft the lineup come Opening Day 2025.

Image courtesy of © Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

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We know that Cody Bellinger is (more than likely) a goner. With that knowledge (but otherwise assuming no lineup-altering moves between now and mid-March), here's a look ahead at the Cubs' potential 2025 lineup.

There's an argument made for Crow-Armstrong and Hoerner to trade spots in the lineup, if you buy very heavily into the surge Crow-Armstrong enjoyed late in the 2024 campaign. It ultimately comes down to this lineup not getting too right-handed heavy toward the bottom. Having Swanson-Hoerner-Shaw in sequence could get worrisome when facing high-leverage righties in late-game situations.

Hoerner has proven that he can be a successful leadoff hitter and sliding him back into that role would help break up the cluster of righties at the bottom of the order. The Cubs will only do so, though, if they're satisfied that the second baseman is fully recovered from his forearm injury and will be something akin to his second-half self from each of the last two years (2023: .768 OPS; 2024: .741) for the whole season in 2025.

The 8-9 duo of Crow-Armstrong and Amaya was probably the best in baseball over the final two months of this season, so there is no reason to break that up. Having Carson Kelly, a known lefty killer will also be huge to platoon with Amaya, who has reverse splits.

This lineup won't be confused for that of the Dodgers, but it's an increasingly threatening group. Depending on how healthy and productive Hoerner, Crow-Armstrong, and even Shaw appear to be in spring training and the early stages of the season, it could take a lot of variant shapes, but they all figure to score more runs than last year's team did.