Can Cubs’ Moisés Ballesteros use Triple-A reset to get back to being a productive bat?

CHICAGO — As the Cubs’ offense tries to dig itself out of a long slump, a player once seen as key to this season is being sent to the minors for a reset. The Cubs announced Friday that Moisés Ballesteros is being optioned to Triple A.

The Cubs’ bats then throttled the Toronto Blue Jays in a 16-2 victory, two nights after putting up eight runs. After Wednesday night’s win over the Colorado Rockies, Ballesteros sat at his locker with his head down, listening to the team’s traveling secretary. Not long after, bullpen catcher Erick Castillo came by to chat with the young player. Before leaving for the night, bullpen coach Mark Strittmatter grabbed Ballesteros, put an arm around him and whispered something in his ear.

With a smile normally plastered on his face, Ballesteros didn’t seem his jovial self. Clearly, the news wasn’t great. By Thursday, word was trickling out. Then, on Friday, the Cubs made his demotion official.

It’s an idea that would have seemed absurd as April was coming to a close. On the morning of April 28, Ballesteros was hitting .387 with a 215 wRC+. He had five home runs and five doubles, rarely struck out and took his walks. He looked like a fixture in the middle of the Cubs lineup, consistently getting his name penciled in at DH. There was talk that he could get some Rookie of the Year buzz, and he genuinely looked like one of the best young, pure hitters in baseball.

Over his next 62 plate appearances, Ballesteros managed just three hits. From April 28 on, he has hit just .128 with two extra-base hits. He began to lose regular playing time as veteran Michael Conforto heated up. Seiya Suzuki, who recently tweaked his knee, has been getting time at DH as well.

Matt Shaw’s return from the injured list meant another quality player to battle for playing time. Add in the emergence of Pedro Ramírez, and a multitude of players are producing better at the plate and bringing value defensively, something Ballesteros doesn’t do consistently yet.

“Ultimately, we made a decision that there wasn’t enough consistent playing time,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Probably not swinging the bat well enough to where we’d say we have to give you DH at-bats.”

The lefty crushed when given the opportunity to start last September after Kyle Tucker was sidelined with an injury. Forced into a playoff race, Ballesteros posted a 177 wRC+ that final month and made enough of an impression to make the playoff roster. It set him up for the inside track on being the main DH at the start of the 2026 season.

It was inevitable that the league would adjust to Ballesteros. Pitchers started pounding fastballs up, and at first, Ballesteros struggled not to chase. Eventually, he adjusted, but the results weren’t coming.

“Frankly, he just hasn’t squared the ball up and hasn’t driven the ball very much,” Counsell said. “The ball’s been on the ground a lot. You’re just not going to slug with the ball on the ground.”

The above chart illustrates what Counsell is talking about. As the season has gone along, Ballesteros’ hard contact has plummeted as his ground-ball rate has jumped.

A valid question: What’s left for Ballesteros to learn at Triple A? Probably not much, but he wasn’t playing much in the bigs, so it was time to get regular at-bats.

“He’s had a lot of success at Triple A,” Counsell said. “But this is a production league. It has to happen here. We’re trying to find the best guys to put out there to get that production.”

Hitting coach Dustin Kelly explained that although Ballesteros isn’t working on a major mechanical change or how to hit a certain pitch, there is a point to sending him to Iowa.

“When you’re not playing a lot, it’s a little bit tricky,” Kelly said. “You kind of lose a little bit of that in-game timing. That’s his superpower; that’s why he was so good early. But as (his playing time reduced), you kind of lose that in-game timing. He’s such a timing and rhythm guy with that big leg kick. We’re not going to lower the leg kick or do anything like that. But just getting his in-game timing back, he can kind of sort things out. You can’t do that when you’re not playing consistently.”

Counsell also added that the organization has to “improve the other side of the baseball for him.” Ballesteros came up through the system as a catcher. In 47 big-league innings behind the plate, the team has seen enough to be intrigued but knows he needs more time to improve.

Counsell said the team is pleased with his in-game instincts but would like to see him improve his receiving and throwing. He’ll get the opportunity to do so regularly with Iowa.

In the long run, for this season and beyond, the best version of this lineup is one with a productive Ballesteros. The message to Ballesteros was to work on all of the above, but also that his bat is important to this team and that he’ll be needed for the Cubs to reach their goals in the short and long term.

“He’s a talented hitter,” Counsell said. “He’s 22 years old. He’s done some very good things in the league quickly already. There’s a good player there. And sometimes you gotta go through some struggles to get there.”