Chicago Cubs: Predicting the starting lineup we’ll see on Opening Day

Ready for Chicago Cubs baseball? Here’s how I picture the starting lineup.

While some of you may have thought the owners and players were never going to be able to settle their differences, cooler heads prevailed (or maybe fiscally-minded ones) and the Cubs will finally get ready to start an abbreviated 60-game schedule in 2020. Well, that is if COVID-19 allows it.

If MLB is able to play amidst the pandemic, new manager David Ross will have to decide on a lineup. Not just any lineup either, as he will have the added benefit and decision of selecting one more player to DH every game now that the designated hitter will be in play for both the National and American Leagues this season.

While most National League teams are probably scrambling to figure out what to do about the DH, the Cubs have a myriad of options with that extra spot in the order. Ross had been on the record as saying he likes more of a set lineup, but that was before the DH was in play. My guess is, with the DH now a part of the lineup every day, the Cubs will play matchups and handedness quite often rather than go with one set guy in that role. After all, they don’t really have David Ortiz or Nelson Cruz sitting around the clubhouse.

With the DH now in play, lineup construction will be all that more exciting and controversial for both the Cubs and everyone else in the National League. Let’s take a look at what the team’s normal lineup might look like on the first (and many thereafter) lineup card.