Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/17/26): PCA Leads Off, Swanson at Short, Assad Starting
After dropping two of three to the Rockies back in Denver, the Cubs now find themselves needing a win to avoid the same fate at home. It’d be one thing if we were talking about a team that featured Dante Bichette, Larry Walker, Todd Helton, and Andres Galarraga, but the Cubs are being outplayed by the worst team in baseball. Wait, does that mean the Cubs are actually the…nah, let’s not go that far.
Javier Assad has been outstanding since coming back from Iowa and being pressed back into a starting role due to Jameson Taillon‘s injury. Assad worked 6.1 scoreless innings of relief when Taillon left early against the Giants on June 7, then worked six scoreless innings in San Francisco. The bespectacled righty allowed only four hits and two walks while striking out 10. I keep worrying about the other shoe dropping, but it hasn’t yet.
Pete Crow-Armstrong has taken hold of the leadoff spot and won’t let go, so he’s back there tonight with a southpaw on the bump for the Rox. Nico Hoerner bats and plays second, Seiya Suzuki is the DH, and Michael Busch is at first. Alex Bregman is at third, Ian Happ is in left, Matt Shaw plays right, and Carson Kelly is the catcher. Dansby Swanson, whose glove is just barely helping him to outrun some of the worst hitting in baseball, is at short.
They’re up against rookie lefty Sean Sullivan, who began his college career up the road at Northwestern before transferring to Wake Forest and becoming a second-round pick in 2023. He moved deliberately through the system to debut last week in Las Vegas with an abbreviated start that saw him face only 12 batters over three innings. The A’s managed only two hits and didn’t score a run.
The southpaw was the Rockies’ No. 11 prospect despite the kind of velocity and stuff that would have been pedestrian 30 years ago. His fastball sits around 87-88 mph, down about four ticks from his college days, and his other pitches grade out around 45-55 on the scouting scale. There’s not much out there in terms of his pitch usage based on handedness or any of that, but expect to see an 83 mph cutter, a 78 mph changeup, and a 76 mph sweeper.
This is the kind of repertoire I would expect to see at a high school or 17U travel game, but Sullivan is able to get away with it because he has serious extension and locates well. Releasing the ball 7.5 feet from the rubber makes hit pitches play up and adds some deception, but that alone isn’t enough to make up for his low velocity. The Cubs should be salivating at this matchup because it’s been such a long time since they’ve feasted on a young pitcher.
That said, I think they need to jump on Sullivan early to avoid falling into that inevitable trap of pressing and failing, pressing and failing. First pitch is at 8:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
Last one of the series.
Tune in live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/LYsdiVII5T
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 17, 2026
