Chicago Cubs Lineup (4/15/25): Turner Still Batting Third, Workman at 3B, Imanaga Starting

The Cubs have shown the ability to bounce back from bad games in the past, but it’s typically been on Mondays after Sunday implosions. Now they’ll have to find a way to hand the Padres their first defeat at home following a deflating performance in which the bullpen walked six batters and gave up two homers out of eight total hits allowed. Jameson Taillon put together a good start and Ethan Roberts maintained his scoreless streak since being recalled, but the rest was a mess.

That goes for the defense as well, though the miscues won’t all show up in the box score. All in all, there were a lot of little things done poorly that turned into big things for the Padres. One of those was continuing to bat Justin Turner in the three-hole as the DH just because that’s where Craig Counsell likes to have it. I’m reasonably sure the rest of the lineup won’t crumble to pieces from moving up one spot, but I know that having a subpar hitter that high in the order doesn’t help.

Don’t get me wrong, Turner is a good fit for the roster when deployed properly. Injuries have forced him into a more prominent role for the time being, but Counsell seems content to exacerbate the situation. That’s par for the course when you have an organization that loves to play shorthanded like Kyle Schwarber used to love watching strike three. Even though it’s happening earlier than usual, the roster is littered with players who can’t go because they’re battling various injuries.

Rather than proactively place them on the IL in favor of able-bodied replacements, the Cubs are opting to tab pitchers who are feeling elbow discomfort. Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly are nicked up as well, but the team seems to believe neither needs more than a couple days off. It’s just frustrating to see the same things play out over and over again.

In any case, Shōta Imanaga is on the mound tonight against the team he beat at the Wrigley opener by going 7.1 innings and giving up one run on four hits. He has yet to strike out more than four in a game through four starts, though he’s hit that mark in each of the last three. Walking only one over his last 12.1 innings is a very good sign, even if he’s watched three homers clear the wall in that time. At least one of those was really cheap, so it’s not all bad by any means.

The Cubs shook things up a bit today, optioning Matt Shaw to Iowa and reinstating Vidal Brujan from the IL. Counsell is still playing short-handed, but that isn’t stopping him from sticking to his guns on lineup construction.

Ian Happ leads off in left with Kyle Tucker in right, after which the Cubs are yet again batting Turner in the third spot. Over the last two games there, the fiery ginger is 0-for-8 with four strikeouts. Michael Busch has been mashing lately and he remains in the cleanup spot playing first, followed by Dansby Swanson at short and Nico Hoerner at second. Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, Miguel Amaya is behind the dish, and Gage Workman is at third.

They’re facing 26-year-old Randy Vásquez, who opposed Imanaga 11 days ago and is pitching in what should be his first full big league season. The righty struggled to miss bats last year, striking out 62 with a whopping 119 hits allowed over 98 innings. That may have been a matter of throwing too many strikes, as his 6.7% walk rate was well below his historical performance. Early results indicate that he’s swung wildly in the other direction.

Through his first 15.2 innings over three starts, Vásquez has allowed only seven hits with six strikeouts and 12 walks. Yikes. The Cubs drew five free passes against him and figure to maintain their patient approach against his breaking balls. The cutter (27%), sweeper (23%), and curve (17%) make up two-thirds of his repertoire, with the sinker (15%), four-seam (12%), and change (7%) completing the mix.

He appears to have drastically shifted his pitch mix, though that could just be a matter of the matchup. Still, going from his four-seam and sinker making up 44% of his pitches last year to just 19% in his first start is something to note. He went fully backward, throwing his sweeper (25%), cutter (23%), curve (22%), and change (12%) more than either fastball. Pitching backwards makes his otherwise pedestrian hard stuff play up and keeps hitters from barreling many of his pitches.

The curve is very slurvy, getting even more horizontal movement than the sweeper with a good deal more depth. They’re thrown with similar low-80s velocity and could play really well off of one another, particularly with his upper-90s cutter giving a different look from the fastball that sits around 93 mph. The changeup is a show-me pitch that doesn’t generate value.

Regression is going to catch up to Vásquez at some point, as he can’t keep getting twice as many walks as strikeouts while also giving up tons of contact. His .159 BABIP against is absurdly low and wholly unsustainable, so a spurt of very bad luck is bound to come his way. Maybe he can swap with Swanson, who had seven batted balls in a row of over 100 mph but failed to capitalize on any of them. This should be a very good matchup for the Cubs, it’ll just be a matter of executing.

First pitch from Petco is at 8:40pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.

Second night of the series.

Watch it live on the Marquee Sports Network app. pic.twitter.com/BOsWy1Fj5S

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 15, 2025