{"id":382049,"date":"2026-01-01T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382049\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:18:09","slug":"cubs-nico-hoerner-had-a-standout-year-could-2026-be-even-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382049\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs’ Nico Hoerner had a standout year \u2014 could 2026 be even better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the final weeks of the 2025 season, Cubs<\/a> second baseman Nico Hoerner didn\u2019t quite shrug off the feat of being in the running for the batting title, but he approached the conversation with a broader context in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what I go into every day valuing,\u201d Hoerner said of batting average, noting that there are better statistics to measure a hitter\u2019s success. \u201cBut it\u2019s a big part of how I get on base, just getting hits, and the ability to move runners and score runners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoerner\u2019s standout 2025 season included a .297 batting average and second-place finish for the National League batting title, behind Trea Turner (.304). It was Hoerner\u2019s best such mark since becoming a lineup regular in 2022. And, to use a more comprehensive, comparative stat, his 114 OPS+ was the best of his career.<\/p>\n

That offensive production, paired with gold-glove defense even earned him a down-ballot NL MVP vote and 19th-place finish for the award. It\u2019s no wonder potential trade partners have inquired about Hoerner, as he enters the final year of his contract. It\u2019s also obvious why the Cubs seem to prefer to keep him, barring an especially robust offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNico\u2019s great at things that other people think they\u2019re good at \u2013 and they\u2019re not as good at it,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said last month when asked about Hoerner\u2019s intangibles. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not talking about just players; I\u2019m just talking about people. When you say, show up every day and complete every rep, that is Nico. Every rep is completed perfectly, that\u2019s who Nico is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of Hoerner\u2019s performance, it\u2019s easy to forget that he had a late ramp-up to last season because of an offseason forearm surgery. Another step forward from him this year, with a normal offseason ahead, could help bolster the offense, especially with the likely absence of current free agent Kyle Tucker.<\/p>\n

The push and pull for Hoerner has long been a desire to add power, but without sacrificing the contact that\u2019s been a strength for his whole career.<\/p>\n

Even after Hoerner\u2019s successful injury rehab had him ready for the Cubs\u2019 domestic opener last season \u2013 he missed the Tokyo Series trip in order to achieve that goal<\/a> \u2013 that balance was still on Hoerner\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fine line when you\u2019re playing every day,\u201d he said in June<\/a>. \u201cYou want to continue to improve but also embrace the skills that make you who you are and get you to this place and make you a big-league starter because that\u2019s a hard thing to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just 40 of Hoerner\u2019s 178 hits last season were for extra bases. But the consistency he offered was invaluable in a lineup that had sluggers like Tucker, Seiya Suzuki, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch to provide the long ball.<\/p>\n

By mid-September, Hoerner and Turner were the only qualified hitters in the NL with batting averages above .300. (The American League had six qualified hitters finish the year hitting .300 or better, led by Aaron Judge\u2019s .331 batting average).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sometimes takes you a while to realize that nobody else is doing that,\u201d Counsell said then. \u201cThat was a mark that the best 10 hitters did, or the best 15 hitters did. And now, you realize in the National League, there\u2019s [two] guys doing it. So it\u2019s just a signal of how hard it is to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what it looks like. Nico feels like he\u2019s getting just hits non-stop, and he\u2019s still only hitting .301. But it\u2019s felt like, \u2018Oh my gosh, he\u2019s piling up hits.\u2019 It\u2019s hard to hit .300 in Major League Baseball, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoerner was infamously even better in clutch situations. He posted a .371 batting average with runners in scoring position, which trailed only the Blue Jays\u2019 Bo Bichette (.381).<\/p>\n

Hoerner was just as consistent, however, in his continued quest for improvement. So, it should have been predictable that he would return to that theme, even in conversations about his elite batting average.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there\u2019s things around the edges that I can still do a lot better that provide more value to our team, as far as getting on base and hitting for power, and those are things I definitely always want to continue to improve on,\u201d he said in late September. \u201cBut [batting average] is a big part of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the final weeks of the 2025 season, Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner didn\u2019t quite shrug off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-382049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}