​Cubs’ 26-year-old September call-up has chance to win long-term DH starting job originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.The Chicago Cubs have a few key spots locked up for the foreseeable future, with Pete Crow-Armstrong locking down center field alongside Michael Busch, Alex Bregman, Nico Hoerner, and Dansby Swanson making up the infield.When it comes to the outfield and the designated hitter spot, however, those spots are up for grabs. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki are free agents, and so is Michael Conforto. If a player emerges, they can win one of those starting jobs.Levi Weaver of The Athletic highlighted 26-year-old rookie September call-up BJ Murray as someone who could potentially win a starting job long-term this month. The slugger from the Bahamas has a real chance to secure a long-term job in Chicago in September.BJ Murray can secure a spot as future DH with a strong September”DH? Now we might be talking. Going into Monday’s action, the team leader in games played at DH was Moises Ballesteros (43 games), who the Cubs have since traded to the Angels for reliever Ryan Zeferjahn,” Weaver writes.With Ballesteros now gone, and with Conforto, the next-biggest shareholder of starts at DH, set to hit the open market after this season, Murray has a chance to secure a starting job long-term to end the 2026 season.Weaver highlighted Murray’s minor league production: an .803 OPS with 73 home runs and a .257 batting average across 581 games in the minors.That’s nothing overly special, but it’s good enough to be intrigued by Murray as a potential long-term solution to the designated hitter spot.MORE: Cubs trade deadline addition Clay Holmes likely to opt out of $12M 2027 player optionHe’s already been called up to the big leagues, but the 26-year-old switch-hitter has had a rough go at it so far. In his nine at-bats, he has one hit and has struck out twice with no walks or extra-base hits.It’s a very small sample size, but he’s already accounted for -0.2 bWAR for the season. While he’s surely not going to play at that level, if he did and played a full 162 games, he’d be worth -7.3 bWAR, an astonishingly terrible number.While it’s not something to worry about since it’s a small sample size, it does highlight how Murray needs to turn things around to have any chance of earning a long-term starting job with the Cubs.He has a chance this September to prove himself, but so far, things aren’t going well for the 26-year-old slugger from the Bahamas.More MLB news:Jose Berrios ‘extremely unlikely’ to opt out of $48 million deal with Blue JaysBo Bichette likely not to opt out of Mets $42 million contractHow Reds’ Sal Stewart has MLB history on his side for NL Rookie of the Year awardKevin McGonigle is runaway favorite to win AL Rookie of the Year for TigersPhillies’ Jesus Luzardo on track to be best road pitcher in MLB history since 1913