Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell is shuffling the middle of the order one more time as the club closes its weekend series with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday night at Wrigley Field. After a 17-5 rout on Saturday,
Alex Bregman will drop from the three-hole to cleanup, swapping places with first baseman Michael Busch.
The move is modest on paper. Pete Crow-Armstrong remains in center and leads off, Seiya Suzuki stays in the two-spot, and the rest of the order is largely familiar: Ian Happ in left, Nico Hoerner at short, Pedro Ramírez at second, Michael Conforto as the designated hitter and Miguel Amaya behind the plate.
Yet the Bregman-Busch exchange is the kind of small adjustment Counsell has used all season while searching for the most productive combination in a lineup that can look different from night to night.
Bregman earned the chance to keep hitting in the heart of the order. On Saturday he went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer in the first inning, an RBI single and a double, finishing with three runs driven in.
The homer was his 20th of the year, a round number that arrived as the Cubs exploded for 17 runs and five home runs, including three from Crow-Armstrong. After a slow first half of his first season on the North Side, Bregman has been one of Chicago’s steadiest hitters since late July. Through 133 games he is batting .255 with 20 home runs, 26 doubles and 73 RBI.
That production is what the Cubs paid for when they signed the veteran third baseman to a five-year, $175 million contract last winter after he spent one season in Boston.
The early months of 2026 did not look like the player Chicago expected. His average sat in the mid-.230s for much of the first half and the extra-base hits were scarce.
Since a four-hit game in St. Louis on July 27, however, he has hit with more authority, posting an OPS near .990 over a 30-game stretch and matching Crow-Armstrong near the top of the majors in WAR during that window.
Sunday’s lineup tweak does not change the larger picture. Bregman is still the everyday third baseman and still a middle-of-the-order bat. Counsell is simply giving Busch, who has also produced well of late, a look in the three-hole after Bregman occupied that spot Saturday.
The Cubs are trying to stay hot after the blowout and after dropping the series opener 10-8 on Friday. A series win would keep momentum heading into September, when playoff positioning becomes the only story that matters.
Bregman has said the group’s approach has to stay relentless from the first inning through the ninth. The Sunday order is another attempt to put that idea into practice: Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki setting the table, Busch and Bregman driving in runs, and a deep supporting cast behind them.
Whether the swap lasts beyond one night is secondary. What matters is that Chicago’s most expensive free-agent addition is swinging the bat the way the front office hoped he would when October comes into view.
