Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/3/26): Bregman DH, Swanson Bats Sixth, Rea Starting

Happy birthday, Evan, hope you like crap! That’s what the Cubs told me yesterday, but the truly unfortunate part is that they shared their poor play with all of us. Tuesday’s loss was the sixth time in their last 12 games that they’ve scored one or no runs, and just the second time in that stretch that they only lost by one while doing so. The pitching has been nearly as poor as the hitting of late, so wasting a rare great effort from Jameson Taillon only made matters worse.

But hey, at least they led the game an inning and a half.

They’ll need to be much better tonight in order for Colin Rea to add to his team-leading total of five wins, only one of which has come in the last four and a half weeks. He got a W the last time out by holding the Pirates to two earned runs over 5.1 innings while the offense mustered seven runs. It’s almost funny that the Cubs have been able to beat Chris Sale and Paul Skenes, yet they can’t so much as make a dent in a parade of mid-rotation guys.

Nico Hoerner plays second and leads off with a southpaw on the mound, then it’s Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Alex Bregman at DH. Seiya Suzuki is in right, Ian Happ is in left, and Dansby Swanson moves up three spots despite a .181 average that includes a .129 mark over his last 71 plate appearances. Michael Busch is at first, Pedro Ramírez plays third, and Miguel Amaya is the catcher.

So much for Kevin Alcántara getting playing time against left-handed pitching, huh? If I didn’t know better, I’d say the organization has almost given up on him. Sure seems like Swanson is in need of a mental break like the one Happ got recently, but what do I know?

Today’s opponent is lefty Jeffrey Springs, a 33-year-old journeyman who has spent most of his MLB career as a reliever. After joining the Rangers organization as the 888th overall pick out of Appalachian State in 2015, Springs worked his way up to debut in 2018. He had decidedly mixed results with a predominantly fastball/changeup mix and was traded to Boston in exchange for Sam Travis in early 2020. Springs was designated for assignment the following year, at which point the Rays acquired him in a deal that included Nick Sogard.

A sprained right knee cost him much of the 2021 season, then came elbow reconstruction that sidelined him for most of 2023 and ’24. His stats were quite strong during his time in Tampa, highlighted by a 2022 campaign that saw him post a 2.46 ERA over 135.1 innings that included 25 starts out of 33 total appearances. He pitched in 10 games over the next two seasons, all starts, before being traded to the A’s in 2025.

Springs has been a mainstay in the rotation, with his only two “relief” appearances last season coming as a bulk man after an opener. He has also tweaked his repertoire a bit, throwing a lot more sliders in place of the fastballs he used to chuck well over half the time. The 79 mph changeup still sees heavy usage, but it’s gotten poor results over the last three years.

His 91.3 mph ride-run fastball still makes up 43% of his pitches and sees roughly even usage to all batters, and he works it up in the zone to stay away from hard contact. The 84 mph slider accounts for a quarter of Springs’ repertoire, but left-handed hitters will see it half the time. Righties will get a lot of changeups, and they’ve been able to see it well enough to lay off it when it floats out of the zone.

Springs will throw the occasional sweeper and even a rare cutter, but he’s mainly going to lean on that trio of pitches above. He has been stung by homers this season, allowing 12 in 66.1 innings for a 1.63 HR/9  mark that is better than only nine other qualified pitchers. Two of those are Cubs, as if you needed reminding.

Despite his relatively long big league tenure, the Cubs only have 25 combined at-bats against Springs. They’ve got a .360 average with a 1.069 OPS over that sample, which would portend good things were it not for the complete lack of confidence in their collective ability to extract their heads from their backsides. I think that will change tonight, if only because I’ll be at an early screening of Masters of the Universe for the first 90 minutes or so of the game.

First pitch is at 7:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.

Wednesday night at Wrigley.

Tune in live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/PBfN7dkS6M

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 3, 2026