Nico Hoerner sits after ending homerless drought

Hoerner tied the game at 2-2 in the seventh before the Cubs added on two more then and one in the eighth. Hoerner has two homers in six games after going 80 straight games without one from Apr. 22 until June 27. He’s hitting .410/.419/.541 with 13 RBI in 15 games since the break.

It was only a pair of singles, but it’s interesting that the Cubs batted Ramírez in the two-hole with Seiya Suzuki out. Ramírez is hitting .350/.398/.500 in his last 30 games with one homer and four stolen bases, perhaps there’s a Maikel Garcia-type fantasy season in him if he gets enough playing time. This was his first career start anywhere higher than sixth in the order.

Peralta and Holmes are almost assuredly being dealt this week, and the Cubs are looking to add starting pitching. As Passan notes, the Cubs also have “plenty of bats available” that could interest the Mets, like Matt Shaw and Pedro Ramirez in the big leagues, or Owen Ayers and Jefferson Rojas in the minors. It remains to be seen if the teams can make anything work, but the pieces seem to be there.

Hoerner hit a two-run homer off Hunter Dobbins to essentially put the game away in the top of the ninth. It was his first homer since way back on Apr. 21, when he hit his fourth in 23 games to start the year. It now seems pretty official that he’s turned things around after a two-month slump; he’s batting .432/.432/.545 in 10 games to start the second half, raising his OPS from .631 to .666.

Bregman has really been scuffling at the plate over the past month, slashing .186/.298/.353 with four homers and 19 RBI over 121 plate appearances in his last 26 games. Perhaps taking a day off to clear his head will do him some good. Pedro Ramirez will man the hot corner in his absence and will bat eighth against Braxton Ashcraft and the Pirates on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park.

Ramírez takes a seat for the second straight game after starting three consecutive contests earlier this week. The 22-year-old infielder hasn’t really gotten an extended opportunity with the Cubs. He would be interesting for fantasy purposes in an everyday role. He made the leap from a unheralded contact-oriented hitter with limited power into a potential top-tier prospect with elite bat-to-ball skills and upper-echelon exit velocities earlier this year at the Triple-A level. He’s a name to watch at the upcoming trade deadline in case his playing time equation changes.

Hoerner remains hot, and his triple scored three and doubled the Cubs’ lead to 6-0 in the third frame. It comes a day after Hoerner singled four times with an RBI, and it’s helped improve his slash to .245/.314/.341. Hoerner has certainly gone on hot runs before, and it’s possible we’re seeing the beginning of one to start the second half of the 2026 campaign.

Surprisingly, it’s his first four-hit game since Apr. 16, 2024. Hoerner, one of the league’s coldest hitters the last couple of months, has six hits in the first two games of the second half. He was 5-for-36 previously this month.

As much of a disaster as Dansby Swanson has been offensively, Hoerner has been just as bad for about eight weeks now. In 46 games since Apr. 22, he’s hit .202/.283/.246 with 11 runs scored and 11 RBI in 205 plate appearances. He’s actually struck out only nine times during the entire stretch, but just putting the ball in play doesn’t necessarily mean good things are going to happen (sorry, baseball commentators). Statcast thinks Hoerner has been pretty unlucky, but his EV numbers are all worse than usual and defenses are taking away some of his singles because they’re just not too worried about him hitting the ball over the heads of outfielders. He’s going to have to swing with a little more authority if he wants to keep defenses honest.

Ramírez’s homer was a 414-footer off Reiver Sanmartin in the fifth inning. The rookie was making his seventh start in 21 games since the Cubs called him up on May 23. He’ll likely return to Triple-A at some point now that Matt Shaw is back, but he’d be interesting if the team had a starting job available for him.