Michael

Conforto

It appears to be nothing more than a routine breather for the 31-year-old slugger. Suzuki has seen his production fall off following a brilliant 2025 campaign, slashing just .239/.324/.400 with eight homers and 20 RBI through his first 204 plate appearances on the season. Michael Conforto will take his place in right field and bat second for the Cubs against A’s right-hander J.T. Ginn.

Lefties are hitting .336/.416/.555 against Kyle Leahy, but the Cubs still couldn’t find any room for the switch-hitting Ramírez today. Michael Conforto is on the bench, too, as the Cubs are starting Moisés Ballesteros at DH rather than give up some defense by having him catch. Ramirez has started two of the Cubs’ nine games since being recalled last week, but that’s still better than Kevin Alcántara; he’s yet to get a start in eight games with the team.

The 22-year-old has been mired in a prolonged slump at the dish, so giving him a night off to clear his head isn’t the worst possible idea. Michael Conforto will serve as the team’s designated hitter in his place and will bat seventh against Cardinals’ right-hander Andre Pallante on Friday evening in St. Louis.

Happ takes a seat in favor of Michael Conforto against Astros starter Kai-Wei Teng. The 31-year-old hitting .107 (3-for-28) over his last seven games and slashing .188/.349/.377 with three homers and 34 strikeouts in 20 games since May 1. He’ll get a brief mental reset as the Cubs attempt to get him back on track.

Michael Conforto will draw another start as the team’s designated hitter and bat sixth. Ballesteros had a stretch through early May where he was starting regularly against righties, often hitting second. He’s been in the lineup for just two of the past six they’ve faced, however. The decreased playing time comes as he’s hitting .034/.065/.034 over his past 31 plate appearances. Conforto, meanwhile, has posted some of the best expected stats in MLB this season.

Conforto finished the afternoon 2-for-4 with the homer, three RBI, and a walk. In 27 games this year he’s hitting .345 with a 1.111 OPS, including some of the best expected stats in MLB. Despite the early success, he’s struggled to earn consistent playing time even against righties as Moisés Ballesteros has operated as the primary DH for most of the season so far. Conforto’s playing time should continue to tick up for as long as he hits this well, but it could take an injury for him to factor into more consistent at-bats, and that likely wouldn’t include time against lefties.

Ballesteros, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ combined to 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts from the second, third and fourth spots in the Cubs lineup, so Ballesteros wasn’t the only guy who had a bad day. However, he just turned in an 0-for-16 week that lowered his OPS from .978 to .827. That’s still a perfectly fine mark on the whole, but with Michael Conforto at 1.132, Ballesteros might take a backseat at DH for a spell.

There’s nothing to suggest anything is wrong with Ballesteros, but he has cooled off a bit of late and Michael Conforto has been outstanding. As a result, it’s Conforto DHing and batting second tonight.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine night off for the 22-year-old slugger. Ballesteros has been an integral cog in the Cubs’ lineup this season, slashing .280/.343/.527 with six homers and 19 RBI across 105 plate appearances. Michael Conforto will function as the team’s designated hitter and will bat second against right-hander Kumar Rocker.

Getting the nod with Seiya Suzuki resting, Conforto had three of the Cubs’ seven hits in this one. He’s batting .361/.467/.667 in 45 plate appearances. There’s still not really any good way for the Cubs to squeeze him into the lineup regularly, but he probably deserves to play over Matt Shaw whenever a starting outfielder sits.