Chicago Cubs Lineup (4/4/26): Busch Leads Off, Shaw in RF, Imanaga Starting

The Cubs have yet to win or lose two games in a row this season, and now they’ll need to get the teeter-totter back in the right direction after dropping yesterday’s series opener. They may have also lost their best starter, with Cade Hortong exiting in the 2nd inning with forearm tightness. The righty said it was just a matter of being cautious and avoiding further injury, but there’ll be a dark cloud over Cubdom unless imaging reveals nothing more than inflammation.

In the meantime, the rest of the staff is going to have to step up. Coin Rea pitched over three innings in relief and now figures to serve as the primary replacement for an injured ace yet again, having filled in for Justin Steele last season. The Cubs could opt to use Ben Brown in a piggyback capacity, especially as Rea stretches out to a starter’s workload, and Javier Assad could come up from Iowa to fill Rea’s spot in the bullpen.

Then there’s the need for the back end of the rotation to carry more of the load, beginning with Shota Imanaga tonight. He’s given up 28 in his last 20 starts, including the postseason, dating back to his return from a hamstring injury on June 26 of last year. If we factor in spring training, it’s 33 homers in 25 starts, with four of those games featuring three dingers against him.

That was always going to be an issue for Imanaga as a fly-ball pitcher, but it’s fine as long as he’s limiting them to solo shots. In his season debut, however, he gave up consecutive two-out singles before Joey Wiemer put one out. To be fair, the result was much more about a good piece of hitting against a splitter that came in well below the zone. It’s just really hard to dismiss in light of Imanaga’s track record.

It hasn’t helped that the offense keeps pulling a disappearing act, with a total of eight runs scored in the Cubs’ four losses. The last two of those have featured just one total run, so it really wouldn’t have mattered how well they pitched.

Michael Busch is leading off again at first base, Alex Bregman is at third, Ian Happ is in left, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Nico Hoerner mans second, Dansby Swanson is the shortstop, Moisès Ballesteros is the DH, Matt Shaw is the right fielder, and Miguel Amaya is behind the plate.

They’re facing 26-year-old righty Slade Cecconi, the 33rd overall pick by the Diamondbacks out of Miami in 2020. He went to Cleveland as the return for Josh Naylor and made 23 starts with a 4.30 ERA last season, his first as a full-time starter in the bigs after working as a swinman for parts of 2023 and ’24. His primary asset to this point is that he’s a strike-thrower, but that’s worked against him as well.

Cecconi has allowed 45 homers in just over 240 career innings, and he’s given up more overall damage to right-handed batters. His 94 mph fastball leads an average-ish arsenal that has resulted in a ton of hard contact, most of which is in the air, but he still managed to come in around six innings per game last season. He lasted only 4.1 innings in his season debut, though, and his velo was down alarmingly across the board.

We’re talking two whole ticks on the fastball and cutter, with nearly 4 mph less on the slider. Some guys are still ramping up in the early going, but you’d expect to see Cecconi throwing harder in the early going. And when you consider that righty starters are currently averaging 95.2 mph on their fastballs, the highest ever as velo continues to trend up, someone being down that big really stands out.

By all accounts, Cecconi should be exactly the kind of pitcher the Cubs need to see tonight. That’s what worries me. While we have every reason to believe they’ll be able to hang a crooked number against him, those matchups often seem to be the most vexing. We’ll find out at 6:15pm CT on FOX and The Score.