Chicago Cubs update: Nico Hoerner, Carson Kelly, Shōta Imanaga

Shōta Imanaga looks like he’s back to his 2024 form

Imanaga had a brilliant, dominant outing against the Phillies last Wednesday, throwing six innings, allowing three hits and a run, striking out 11 [VIDEO].

After a somewhat-rough first start this year, Imanaga has a 1.06 ERA and 0.529 WHIP over his last three starts, with three walks and 24 strikeouts in 17 innings — and only one home run allowed in that span.

Keep that up and the Cubs ought to offer him a contract extension.

Hat tip to Riley Martin, who has been really good in relief since being called up. Over the week, Martin threw 3.1 shutout innings. He faced 11 batters and retired 10 of them, and is rapidly joining Craig Counsell’s circle of trust. I really like what I’ve seen from Martin so far — good pitch mix, good mound presence, attacks hitters.

Another hat tip to Moisés Ballesteros, who went 6-for-10 with a home run in five games over the past week.

Three down

Michael Busch continues to struggle

Busch had a good year in 2024 and a great 2025. Last year he smashed 34 homers during the regular season and four more in eight postseason games. That’s a pretty good established track record over more than 1,000 plate appearances.

Thus his .164/.262/.192 slash line in 84 PA, with no home runs, seems somewhat inexplicable. Good hitters do occasionally have struggles, but generally not for this long.

Here’s hoping he breaks out of it during the Phillies series at Wrigley this week.

One of these days, Alex Bregman will break out

Bregman hasn’t been bad… he just hasn’t been all that good, yet. He does draw walks, three of them over the week giving him a .357 OBP in the six games. Going 7-for-25 gave him a .280 BA, which also isn’t bad… but all of those hits were singles, and Bregman has only three extra-base hits this year (a double and two home runs).

Historically, Bregman has been a slow starter, as his career .762 OPS in March/April is his lowest of any month. Hopefully, he will heat up as the calendar turns to May. (Before that would be okay, too!)

Pete Crow-Armstrong is also off to a rough start

PCA had a slow beginning to his season in 2025, too, batting just .211/.286/.263 (12-for-57) with no home runs over his first 15 games, before he had a breakout series at Dodger Stadium, hitting a double, triple and two home runs.

This year, in 21 games, pretty similar: .222/.276/.309 (18-for-81) with one home run. He’s also been caught stealing three times in seven attempts.

The Cubs get to Dodger Stadium this weekend. Perhaps that will get him going.

PCA does continue to play stellar defense. Here’s a nice running catch he made on Sunday [VIDEO].

The defense alone gives him 0.7 bWAR so far this year, and he leads all of MLB in defensive bWAR with 0.8.