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Cubs Predicted to Replace Matt Busch With 25 Home Run Slugger

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jon Conahan | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 4:30 PM ET

The Chicago Cubs have been fortunate that Michael Busch is the type of player that he is.

After they acquired him, there were questions about whether the Cubs would go out and try to add another first baseman. Instead, Busch has been one of the better first basemen in the National League and has proven that once again throughout the 2025 campaign. Busch is currently hitting .269 with 10 home runs, posting a 149 OPS+.

But that doesn't mean that the Cubs won't attempt to find his replacement or look to add a player who could potentially fill that gap, while Busch could look to move to a different position.

Baseball America recently predicted that the Cubs would draft Andrew Fischer, a first baseman out of the University of Tennessee.

“Plenty of people are linking Tyler Bremner to the Cubs, but I don’t think he gets this far on draft day. The Cubs haven’t taken a high school player in the first round since Ed Howard in 2020, and I’ve heard a lot more college names tied to them this spring—though all of the top high school shortstops still on the board make sense here on talent,” BA wrote.

Selecting Fischer with the 17th overall pick might be the Cubs' strategy of going for the best player available at the time.

While they don't need to add a first baseman, Fischer has huge power in his bat, and for a team that's swinging it the way the Cubs are recently, adding even more power might be what they're looking for.

During the 2025 season for the Volunteers, the New Jersey native hit 25 home runs, posting a 1.257 OPS.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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