Chicago Cubs Lineup (2/28/26): Shaw at 3B, Alcántara DH, Rea Starting Final February Game
Can you believe we’ve reached the end of February already? March is right around the corner, which means I will no longer have to adjust the schedule on Cubs.com to see the gameday information. Speaking of which, I can’t tell you how much I hate the changes they made to the homepage at some point last season. You used to be able to navigate easily to info for that day’s game or for those in the past and future. Now, however, they try to trick you into clicking on a link to buy tickets.
It’s little more than a minor inconvenience for most folks, but it grows more exaggerated for someone who writes lineup posts nearly every day. I suppose it’s a little hypocritical for me to complain when this site can be littered with ads, so this is the last time I’ll bring it up. Moving on…
Colin Rea takes the mound for the second time this spring as he prepares himself for a swing role that could turn into something bigger if the Cubs experience another spate of injuries. Last year was his best in MLB by a fairly wide margin, which is really saying something for a dude who turned 34 near the halfway point of the season. While I remain skeptical of his ability to stack another season — or two, as the Cubs hold a $7.5 million option for 2027 — like that, he should provide a relatively steady hand.
Rea has made 32 appearances with 27 starts in each of the last two seasons, and his stats were very similar across both of them. The biggest difference came in his ability to limit home runs, which was not at all a function of pitching at Wrigley Field. Of the 20 longballs he surrendered, 14 came at home. Rea also gave up more barrels and was only nominally better at avoiding hard contact, some of which felt a little lucky.
Then again, he did make a big change by swapping out most of his sinkers for four-seamers and making small improvements to both. The heater gained nearly a full tick of velocity and had slightly more ride than in 2024, and the sinker was likewise thrown a little harder with more drop and arm-side run. Though the individual changes weren’t huge on their own, the combination served to separate the two pitches more than in the past.
My concern is rooted in skepticism of Rea’s ability to maintain that level of deception, as the margin for error is razor-thin with his stuff. But if he’s able to make more tweaks to further separate his offerings, maybe he can keep hitters guessing just enough to remain a viable long man and spot starter.
Matt Shaw leads this one off at third base, Kevin Alcántara gets his first action of the spring at DH, Dylan Carlson is in center, and Chas McCormick is in left. Cristian Bethancourt is the catcher, James Triantos is at second, B.J. Murray is at first, and Justin Dean is in right. Scott Kingery bats ninth at short.
On the hill for the home team is 25-year-old Justin Wrobleski, a short-arming southpaw who could be due for a breakout this season. Though his results to this point have been pretty pedestrian, the underlying stats signal the potential for Wrobleski to be very good. Over 66.2 innings across 24 MLB appearances (two starts) last season, he generated a 27.1% strikeout rate (80th percentile), a 6.1% walk rate (84th), a 51.1% grounder rate (86th), and a mere 3.8% barrel rate (98th).
The issue is that he also gave up hard contact at a 47.8% clip (5th) with a 92 mph average exit velo (1st) while throwing with 5.6-foot extension (2nd). Out of 711 pitchers who appeared in an MLB game last season, only 11 released the ball farther from the plate than Wrobleski. Interestingly enough, six of them are also lefties. Having such low extension is obviously not a death sentence, it just means the pitchers in question need to have serious outlier stuff.
Whether it’s their arm angle or just nasty stuff, they have to overcome the lack of deception that comes from giving hitters a little more time to see what’s coming. In Wrobleski’s case, it’s getting the fastball to the upper 90s and varying speeds with his 88 mph slider and 92 mph cutter. As you may have discerned from the stats above, however, he tends to leave almost everything middle-middle with alarming frequency. Making adjustments to stay out of the heart of the zone so often could see him become a legitimate weapon.
First pitch from Camelback Ranch is at 2:05pm CT, with the only coverage coming from the Dodgers’ TV and radio broadcasts.
more baseball, pls. 🙂↔️ pic.twitter.com/85qL44nJ6G
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 28, 2026
