MESA, Ariz – The first person who came to Michael Busch’s mind when he heard he’d been traded to the Cubs was hitting coach Dustin Kelly.
They’d spent the 2020 season together at the Dodgers’ alternate training site. Busch was a first-round draft pick the year before, and Kelly was a minor-league hitting coach.
“The way he approached hitting I really respected,” Busch said in a conversation with the Sun-Times. “He was one guy who really studied your swing and studied who you were.”
So, when the Cubs brought in Busch as a long term solution at first base, he and Kelly picked up that relationship where it left off.