Chicago Cubs Lineup (3/11/26): Hoerner Leads Off, Matt Shaw at 1B, Rea Pitching
The Cubs went down in a beautiful disaster yesterday, but 3/11 gives them a chance to prove that amber is the color of their energy with a bounceback win behind Colin Rea. The big righty has been as good as ever in the early going, but we have to exercise the same caution with his results as we do those of Cade Horton in yesterday’s rough outing. If nothing else, we know Rea can provide highly competent rotation depth.
He’s got a fairly regular lineup behind him in this one, with Nico Hoerner leading off and Moisés Ballesteros at DH. Ian Happ is in left, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Michael Conforto continues to press for a roster spot in right. Carson Kelly handles the catching, Dylan Carlson is in center, and Matt Shaw is at…first? Hmm, I seem to remember someone talking about that recently. Pedro Ramirez rounds things out at third this afternoon.
Back to first base for a moment, as we had a couple different pieces discussing how the Cubs would handle Michael Busch’s backup with Tyler Austin on the shelf. Jonathon Long won’t be rostered just to play once in a while against lefties, so it makes sense to have at least two bench guys split backup duties. Shaw and Miguel Amaya, who was working at first before leaving to play for Panama in the WBC, are the clear top options because they’re both right-handed and won’t get enough ABs at one particular position.
To that end, don’t expect Ballesteros to catch as frequently as he has this spring once the games count. Amaya’s absence has pushed him behind the plate for several games, but he’s got a lot of work to do if he wants to catch regularly. This feels more like a way for the Cubs to keep him happy while they continue to view him as a DH in the long run. One scout told Bruce Levine he believes Mo Baller can be the next Alejandro Kirk, but the Cubs can’t bank on that.
Their initial opponent today will be Mitch Spence, whose parents only regret that they didn’t make his middle name Chad. This is Spence’s first season with KC after being traded from the A’s in the deal for A.J. Causey, and the righty has been in the Yankees organization as well. The 27-year-old isn’t a very big guy and he doesn’t throw hard, plus he gets very little extension. All told, he’s got a lot of things working against him.
As you can probably guess, Spence has to lean into breaking stuff, with his cutter (45%), slider (27%), and curve (18%) making up nearly all of his repertoire. His cutter is more of a slider and the slider is more of a sweeper because it gets far more horizontal movement than most of its kind. His sinker gets over seven inches less arm-side movement than the MLB average, which might be why he throws it infrequently.
Spence worked mainly as a started until last year, then worked out of the bullpen until getting eight starts at the end of the season. Unless he’s able to make significant changes to his velo and pitch mix, he can probably be more effective in shorter outings. I’d say that we could get a good look at whether and how he’s tweaked his approach, but there’s no coverage of this game even though it’s at Sloan Park.
First pitch is at 3:05pm CT.
see you soon, @SloanParkMesa. pic.twitter.com/6D8hnbtv7B
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 11, 2026
