Chicago Cubs Lineup: Still No Kris Bryant

The Cubs are kicking off a three-game weekend series against the Reds later this afternoon, and here’s the lineup for Game 1.

Chicago Cubs Lineup: 

  1. Albert Almora Jr., CF
  2. Jason Heyward, RF
  3. Javy Baez, 3B
  4. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
  5. Ben Zobrist, 2B
  6. Kyle Schwarber, LF
  7. Willson Contreras, C
  8. Addison Russell, SS
  9. Mike Montgomery, P

I know Kris Bryant is irreplaceable, but it’s still amazing to me how deep this team is. Even with the former MVP out entirely (we’ll have to see if there’s any news about this soon), the Cubs are able to fill a lineup full of potential All-Star types and still have a 23-year-old switch-hitting outfielder with a 120 wRC+ on the bench. I love it.

And this lineup is very balanced. Joe Maddon is leading things off with a righty against Tyler Mahle, who actually holds SIGNIFICANT splits in favor of left-handed hitters, but follows him up with lefty, righty, lefty, switch-hitter, lefty, righty, righty. Altogether, four of the eight Cubs position players will swing it from the left side of the plate today, and Mahle has allowed a .278/.396/.577 slash line against southpaws this season. So, yeah. That’s good.

A win today would give the Cubs a season-high seven consecutive victories and kick the weekend off right. As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (1:20 CT).

written by

Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami

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