Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/12/25): Happ Leads Off, Busch at 1B, Taillon Facing Old Team
The Cubs return home with their tales between their legs after consecutive series losses to the Tigers and Phillies. They can’t feel too bad, however, as going 4-5 on the road trip enabled them to gain ground on the Cardinals and Brewers. Now they face the Pirates for four games starting Thursday at Wrigley.
On the bump for the home team is Jameson Taillon, the former second overall pick by the Pirates back in 2010. He’s riding a tremendous stretch of four games over which he’s allowed only five earned runs with 16 strikeouts and five walks. His strikeout rate is below 20% for the second season in a row, but his walk rate is near the best of his career and he’s giving up less hard contact than at any point with the Cubs.
Taillon hasn’t faced the Pirates yet this season, but he’s got quite a bit of experience against members of their roster and knows how to handle them. Well, other than Tommy Pham, who has a 1.006 OPS in 24 at-bats against him. Bryan Reynolds has a .905 OPS over 14 at-bats that includes the team’s only home run against Taillon. Limiting power output will be a big key to this one, as Taillon has surrendered 16 homers this season.
As has been the case quite often this season, the Cubs have been able to overcome any pitching mistakes with their potent offense. Ian Happ has been heating up lately and he remains in the leadoff spot, followed by Kyle Tucker in right and Seiya Suzuki at DH. Pete Crow-Armstrong cleans up in center, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Carson Kelly is behind the plate. Michael Busch gets a rare start at first against a lefty, then it’s Nico Hoerner at second and Matt Shaw at third.
They’re facing 33-year-old lefty Andrew Heaney for the second time this season after beating up on him in late April. He’s highly underrated due to an injury-plagued career and the presence of Paul Skenes, but Heaney has been very good over 13 starts this season. Outside of the few hiccups like the one he had against the Cubs, he’s been lights-out. He’s given up four or five earned runs in four starts, then two or fewer runs in his other nine.
The big red flag is that his strikeout rate is very low and his walk rate isn’t good enough to mitigate it. That said, his 90 mph heater is incredibly effective because it runs like a two-seam and creates great separation with an 82 mph changeup that gets similar arm-side movement. Those two pitches have Heaney in the 67th percentile for run value, with the change in the 93rd percentile. His slider and curve aren’t nearly as good and never really have been, so they’re pretty much there for show.
The slider is actually decent when he has it working, but it’s very inconsistent and will frequently back up on him. That could be a contributing factor to marked reverse splits that deviate somewhat from historical results. Left-handed batters are slashing .268/.307/.549 with a .366 wOBA against him, anywhere from 21 (OBP) to 202 (slugging) points higher than their right-handed counterparts. Kelly and PCA each homered against him back in April, so splits didn’t seem like much of an issue in that one.
Getting their hits shouldn’t be a problem for the Cubs tonight, it’ll just be a matter of stringing them together and making Heaney pay for his mistakes.
First pitch is at 7:05pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
