Cubs Aren’t Looking for a Bat Until After Aramis Ramirez Comes Back

The Chicago Cubs offense has been scuffling terribly for months. Some would say it coincides with the removal of Aramis Ramirez’s bat from the lineup, but it is not as though the team is simply missing one hitter – nobody, other than Derrek Lee, is hitting at all with consistency.

But apparently the Cubs still see Ramirez’s return as the panacea for all the Cubs’ offensive woes: they aren’t looking for a bat until after Ramirez returns.

Judging from the way [Assistant GM Randy] Bush talked Tuesday, the Cubs aren’t heavy into the market for hitters. (“We’d like to get Aramis back, see how that solidifies our lineup and go from there,” he said.) So, the team has to hope that its other key hitters — particularly Soriano and Soto — find their respective strokes the same way that Lee did. FOX Sports.

Many investment gurus like to say “hope is not a strategy.” Apparently they need to append that truism with “…unless you’re the Cubs.”

The most troubling part of this news is the indication that the team believes not only that Ramirez’s return will somehow magically make Soriano pull his head out of his ass, but also that Ramirez is going to be a great hitter when he returns.

Am I the only one who is worried that a dude with a jacked up shoulder may not be the hitter to save the team? Of course he’ll be better than Aaron Miles, but might he struggle?

And by then, the Cubs will have lost how many more games while they wait and see? The team can’t assume the rest of the NL Central will languish around them. Some team is going to make a move, and as things stand, it ain’t gonna be the Cubs.

Of course, my rant is a bit disingenuous.

Where exactly should the Cubs add a bat? Once Ramirez returns, there is not a single spot where you could realistically replace the starter, outside of second base and *maybe* shortstop. The latter will never, ever happen, and where is this huge upgrade at second base that’s available? If he’s out there, I haven’t heard his name.

Well, other than Mark DeRosa, of course…