1B · 2026
Michael Busch
- Age
- 29
- B/T
- L/R
- Height
- 5' 11"
- Weight
- 210 lb
- Number
- #29
- Born
- November 9, 1997 in Inver Grove Heights, MN, USA
- MLB debut
- April 25, 2023
- Drafted
- 2019, round 1
- College
- North Carolina
- dbWAR
- 6.9 3 season(s)
- PA
- 531
- AVG
- .248
- OBP
- .358
- SLG
- .395
- wRC+
- 115 100 = avg
Michael Busch is a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs. In 2026 he hit 14 home runs and knocked in 63 RBIs, notching 111 hits across 531 plate appearances in 118 games. His batting average was .248, 1.7% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .358 clip and slugged .395, for an OPS of .753, 4.7% higher than the league mark of .719 — 5th of 13 on his team, and 128th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.1 mph off the bat, hit 39.4% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 75.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 115 wRC+ puts his offence 15% above average. That comes to 1.5 dbWAR — +9.6 runs with the bat, -0.9 on the bases, -11.1 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +15.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 157 | 132 | 32 | 4 | 19 | 32 | .242 | .350 | .394 | .336 | 20.4% |
| vs RHP | 374 | 316 | 79 | 10 | 49 | 85 | .250 | .361 | .396 | .342 | 22.7% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 335 batted balls…
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 118 | 531 | 111 | 14 | 63 | 2 | 68 | 117 | .248 | .358 | .395 | .147 | .302 | 12.8% | 22.0% | .340 | +9.6 | 115 | 1.5 | |
| 2025 | 154 | 592 | 137 | 34 | 90 | 4 | 56 | 139 | .261 | .343 | .523 | .261 | .292 | 9.5% | 23.5% | .370 | +26.8 | 139 | 3.4 | |
| 2024 | 149 | 567 | 123 | 21 | 65 | 2 | 63 | 162 | .248 | .335 | .440 | .192 | .322 | 11.1% | 28.6% | .339 | +12.4 | 129 | 1.9 |
Head to head
Put Michael Busch beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.