Baseball’s Best-Kept Secret: Nico Hoerner Is Having a Historic Postseason and Nobody’s Talking About It

With the Chicago Cubs punching back in the NLDS to force a winner-take-all Game 5 in Milwaukee, resilience has become the defining trait of this team — and a national storyline across Major League Baseball.

Nobody expected the Cubs to make it this far. They looked lifeless after returning home from American Family Field earlier in the week. The vibes were bad, they looked overmatched on the field, and on top of all that, injuries were stacking the deck against them.

Cade Horton — the team’s most dominant pitcher in the second half — was left off the NLDS roster with a rib injury. Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga were both clearly laboring down the stretch.

As Chicago rattled off back-to-back wins at Wrigley to stay alive, fans and analysts alike fixated on the big swings from Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki, or the bullpen stepping into the fire and answering the bell with authority.

But almost nobody is talking about the postseason of Nico Hoerner.

Quietly, the Cubs second baseman is putting together the best October run of any player in franchise history.

Shockingly, this is Hoerner’s first true postseason. He debuted in 2019 and was on the 2020 roster when the Cubs made a brief appearance in the Wild Card Series against the Marlins — but he didn’t play. Chicago was swept out in two games, and they haven’t been back to October baseball until now.

Hoerner has started all seven postseason games this year, and he’s recorded a hit in every single one of them.

He’s 12-for-28 (.429) with a home run, two RBIs, and a stolen base. That’s the most hits through the first seven games of a postseason in Chicago Cubs history.

The all-time MLB record for hits in a single postseason is 29 — set by Randy Arozarena over a 20-game stretch in 2020.

If the Cubs win in Milwaukee and go on a deep run, they’d be guaranteed at least 16 games. A full World Series trip could put them right in that 20-game window — and suddenly, an all-time MLB record isn’t some pipe dream. It’s legitimately in play.

We’re officially on record watch.

Hoerner has been an incredible table-setter for the Cubs all season, but he’s been especially sharp under the October lights. His defense and baserunning change the Cubs’ DNA every single night — backed by his 4.8 fWAR this season — but his consistency in big moments deserves way more love.

This is a player who was built for October.