Players · B · 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, United States
- MLB debut
- April 25, 2023
- Drafted
- 2019, round 1
- College
- North Carolina
- dbWAR
- 8.8 4 season(s)
- PA
- 707
- AVG
- .243
- OBP
- .354
- SLG
- .395
- wRC+
- 113 100 = avg
Michael Busch is a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs. So far in 2026 he has hit 20 home runs and knocked in 77 RBIs, notching 145 hits across 707 plate appearances in 159 games. His batting average is .243, level with the league average of .244. He reached base at a .354 clip and slugged .395, for an OPS of .749, 4.2% higher than the league mark of .719 — 5th of 13 on his team, and 140th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.3 mph off the bat, hit 39.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 7.8% of them and made contact on 74.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 113 wRC+ puts his offence 13% above average. That comes to 2.4 dbWAR — +11.2 runs with the bat, -0.3 for the ballpark, -1.4 on the bases, +0.6 on double plays, -8.8 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 terms sum to +23.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.
WAR by season
Batting
Standard and advanced, 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 | 203 | 172 | 42 | 7 | 24 | 43 | .244 | .350 | .424 | .346 | 21.2% |
| vs RHP | 504 | 425 | 103 | 13 | 68 | 122 | .242 | .355 | .384 | .334 | 24.2% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 437 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 436 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 7.8% 34 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 88.3 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 109.2 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 39.9% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 36.6% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 15.6° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Michael Busch hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 707 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .243 | .354 | .395 | .338 |
| Bases empty | 367 | 317 | 78 | 14 | 15 | 44 | 90 | .246 | .349 | .432 | .348 |
| Runner on first | 154 | 133 | 26 | 3 | 9 | 18 | 46 | .195 | .305 | .316 | .289 |
| Runners on | 340 | 280 | 67 | 6 | 62 | 48 | 75 | .239 | .359 | .354 | .326 |
| RISP | 186 | 147 | 41 | 3 | 53 | 30 | 29 | .279 | .403 | .388 | .358 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Head to head
Put Michael Busch beside up to three others.
Or read one already written — Michael Busch against:
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.