Craig Counsell juggling hitter development with winning

It took one pitch for Kelly to illustrate Counsell’s point about finding the right spots for his players to be successful.

With his two at-bats on Saturday, Ballesteros has 40 against right-handed pitchers versus just two against lefties this season. He’s doing plenty of damage against the right-handers he’s facing, but the balance that Counsell has to strike is when to let Ballesteros get looks against lefties for the sake of his development as a hitter and when to let the game dictate that it’s time to go to his bench for a right-handed bat.

For his part, Ballesteros said he feels equally comfortable facing left-handed pitchers and no matter the situation he’s always just trying to drive the ball up the middle. As the season progresses, Counsell will be presented with situations where he’s going to leave Ballesteros in to face a lefty.

In moments like the sixth inning of Saturday’s game, Counsell’s focus is on getting runs on the board and winning a ballgame. That is going to mean pinch-hitting for guys like Ballesteros later in games. A part of a team’s long-term success comes from every guy understanding his role and being willing to put the group above the self.

“I’m here for a winner,” Ballesteros told CHGO. “I’m not here for my numbers. I’m not here for anything [for myself]. I’m here for winners, and I’m here for a good team, and [being] a good teammate.”

Matt Marton-Imagn Images

A situation like Saturday’s — when Kelly pinch-hits and crushes the first pitch he sees for a three run homer that gives the Cubs a lead — makes it easy on a guy in Counsell’s position. Like so many other decisions he makes during a game, Counsell is a genius when they work.

“A pinch-hit, three run homer, that’s a good day for the manager,” Ian Happ quipped.

The time will eventually come, the Cubs hope, when Ballesteros is a less obvious choice to get removed for a pinch-hitter, but he’s still very early in his career. And for the team as a whole, the National League Central is off to a very tight start, so each win seems to carry a little more weight. It’s still very early, but going into Saturday’s game, every team in the division was above .500, and the Cubs were in last place with just 1.5 games separating them from the top of the Central.

It’s expected that teams like the Cardinals will probably start fading as the season goes on, and the Reds’ negative run differential suggests that they won’t continue winning at their current pace. But that still leaves the Brewers and Pirates, and both teams are looking like legit contenders a month into the season. That’s expected from Milwaukee, given how they’ve done the past half dozen years, but the Pirates might be a sleeper in the division.

To some extent, a player’s development is his responsibility. He has the offseason and spring training to work on things, but once opening day comes, it’s time to produce. A manager still has some opportunity to lean into development opportunities that arise during the season, of course, but his main job is winning games.

Now in his third season in charge of the Cubs, Counsell has taken the group forward. They won 83 games and missed the playoffs in his first year, but in 2025 they improved by nine wins and advanced to within a game of the National League Championship Series. Most fans would agree that Counsell’s primary job is to get the Cubs back to the top of the division, a place they haven’t been in a full season since 2017, and to go even deeper in the playoffs than last year.

But right now it’s just April. And Ballesteros is one of Counsell’s hottest bats. He’s done an effective job of communicating the mission to his team, enough so that Ballesteros understands being pinch-hit for and doesn’t need the reasoning spelled out for him every time. Especially in a game like Saturday’s.

“He’s been doing a great job. It’s been working,” Ballesteros said of Counsell. “We’ve been winning and getting good results.”