Cam Smith continues to provide nightmare fuel for Cubs fans with first MLB plate appearance

Ahead of the Chicago Cubs' second Opening Day of the 2025 Major League Baseball season, the fanbase always needs something to have anxiety.

Lately, for Cubs fans, the anxiety has stemmed from the fear that the Cubs may have already lost the Kyle Tucker trade. The Cubs are 0-2 on the season, and there remains the expectation that Tucker will sign elsewhere once he reaches free agency next winter.

Making things even worse for Cubs fans is the fact that the prized prospect that the Cubs dealt away in the Tucker trade, Cam Smith, broke spring training on the Houston Astros' Opening Day roster. Smith was in the Astros' lineup against the New York Mets, and well, his first plate appearance won't remove the fear that Cubs fans have.

Cubs fans surely did not miss Cam Smith singling during his first Major League plate appearance

Smith's single on the very first pitch he saw on Thursday will only add to the pessimism that Cubs fans currently have. For as uneasy as Cubs fans may have been watching Smith's hot spring training, there is a chance that his success will continue during the early portions of the 2025 season, Major League pitchers don't have the book on Smith. With that, the advantage will usually go to the hitter.

As we're here on Opening Day, talking about Smith, if Cubs fans are going to embark on this exercise, it wouldn't be fair to compare his production to Tucker. Tucker, when healthy, is one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball, and a slow spring training this season doesn't change that.

The comparison for Cubs fans will be to Matt Shaw. When the Cubs were in the middle of trade talks for Tucker, it was believed the Astros wanted either Shaw or Smith. Given the Cubs already had plans of making Shaw their third baseman in 2025, that likely was the biggest reason why they were willing to part with Smith in the trade. It's a trade that Cubs fans already have a revisionist history over and that likely is going to continue as long as Smith is producing for the Astros at the Major League level.