First base became a revolving door for the Cubs after they dealt Anthony Rizzo, a fixture of their World Series team, to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline.
Players such as Alfonso Rivas, Frank Schwindel, Matt Mervis and Trey Mancini have had shots at the job. But no one performed well enough to warrant sticking around — until the Cubs traded for Michael Busch.
With his path to playing time blocked as a member of the Dodgers, Busch needed a new environment, and the Cubs needed a first baseman. When they acquired him in January, along with pitcher Yency Almonte, they knew they were getting a player who had raked throughout the minor leagues and just needed a chance to show it at the next level.
“Opportunity is all you can ask for in this game,” Busch told the Sun-Times.
He has since quelled any concerns about him playing first — a position he hadn’t manned regularly since college — by ranking in the 84th percentile for outs above average, according to Baseball Savant.
“It’s a position that gets overlooked a lot defensively,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “It’s a position that people think can be easy to play, but [it’s] hard to play well, and [Busch has] done a great job of that.”
To understand the Busch who has helped stabilize first base for the Cubs, you have to travel back to his days at North Carolina.
‘Their words mean something’
In 2017, the Tar Heels had rolled through the regular season, finishing 44-11 — the first time they had won more than 40 games before the postseason — and were seeded No. 2 nationally and No. 2 in their region.
Facing No. 4 Davidson in a best-of-three series in the Chapel Hill Regional, the Tar Heels dropped the first game 8-4, putting them on the brink of elimination. In the second game, they found themselves down 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and runners on first and third. The game and the season rested on the shoulders of Busch, a freshman first baseman who had homered earlier in the game for the Tar Heels’ lone run.
He ended up grounding out.
“I had to kind of pull him away from me and push him away from me,” then-coach Mike Fox remembered as he spoke with the Sun-Times by phone recently. “I’m like, ‘Michael, stop. What are you talking about?’ He was sorry that he made the last out.”
Fox recalls being struck by how deeply Busch cared.
“There was just no BS with him,” he said. “He was quiet and was reserved. Those kinds of people, when they do talk, their words usually mean something.”
‘Baseball is a game of failure’
Busch had shown flashes of talent that year, slashing .215/.349/.341 while starting 38 games as he improved his pitch recognition at the college level. He recalled a moment with Fox that still shapes his approach to baseball.
Up to that point in his baseball journey, Busch had never experienced failure. The transition from high school pitching to the sophistication of college pitching can be jarring. Pitch recognition, Fox said, is the first hurdle for high school players as they transition to college baseball.
Amid those struggles, Busch remembers a moment with Fox that still shapes his approach to baseball.
“I was struggling and wasn’t playing every day,” he said, “and we were in the weight room and [Coach Fox] came up to me and said, ‘Keep going — you’re a good player,’ and it was uplifting. It’s not like I started to rake after that, but it was like, ‘OK, just keep going, keep working.’ ”
“I had never seen pitching like that at that level, at that age. That [conversation] really helped; I haven’t forgotten about it for a long time and there’s a reason why.”
Busch’s calm approach showed in the most pressurized moments. Fox remembered Busch breaking up a no-hitter with a game-tying hit with two outs in the Tar Heels’ road game against Florida State during Busch’s freshman year that North Carolina ended up winning 5-2 in extra-innings.
Then the next night he hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to complete North Carolina’s first-ever sweep at Florida State.
“Michael was very mature beyond his years when he got on campus,” Fox said. “[He] never seemed to be overwhelmed and got down on himself. “[The Florida State game] was when we saw how good Michael Bush was going to be.”
‘He’s got a great perspective’
Fox retired from North Carolina in 2020, opening up his schedule to visit former players. He came to Chicago to watch Busch on July 20 during the Cubs’ series against the Diamondbacks.
When the two reconnected after–ward, Fox saw the same player he’d once coached, with the same drive to improve. He said he isn’t surprised by Busch’s success.
“He wants to be a great big-league player,” Fox said. “He’s got a great perspective on it, and he’s always been that way, just even-keeled, calm and measured.”
