What a 24 hours. Here I thought Ken Rosenthal saying he believed the Cubs would sign one of the top shortstops in the offseason was going to be the biggest news around here. Instead, the Cubs picked up Franmil Reyes, then announced Jason Heyward would not play for the team again, and then sent Frank Schwindel to Iowa. And now I wake up to Roquan Smith requesting a trade from the Bears?!
And ‘Better Call Saul’ last night! Good gravy. That, too!
Gotta reset myself a bit …
I’ll have more to say on Heyward, himself, later, but I think the fact that the Cubs were ready to make this announcement in early August is really telling. The idea that the rest of this year is about young players, about development, and about setting the team up for more success in 2023 is not just lip service. There’s no more effing around with trying to get Heyward right, or just get him healthy, or whatever. He wasn’t going to play, because it was more important to allocate that time to others. And he wasn’t going to hold onto the 40-man spot over the offseason, because there are too many other guys who need the spot. So don’t drag things out. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Just cut the cord. I appreciated it in the moment, and even after an evening to reflect, I appreciate it all the more.
In laying things out with the media before last night’s game, Cubs President Jed Hoyer confirmed that the priority right now is playing time for the younger guys, the up-and-comers.
Although that was in the context of the Heyward decision, I will insert my own opinion that it was also reflected in the Cubs sending David Bote to Iowa last week, and also what effectively became a Reyes-for-Schwindel swap. It made all the sense in the world to give Frank Schwindel time this year to show his 2021 was not a fluke, and that he was just a guy who could always hit but never really got a shot. Where the Cubs were, where the first base position was, etc. It just made sense to give him multiple months. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out. So, when Reyes – a guy who is primarily a DH and would therefore further strain the starting opportunities for Schwindel – became available, the Cubs had to take that shot. Not just because Reyes is three years younger, but because there’s a substantial big league track record of success, and upside from there. I love Frank Schwindel’s story, but I don’t think you can say the same thing about him. It’s possible neither player winds up sticking with the Cubs through the offseason, but if you’ve got only two months left to evaluate one of them at the big league level this year BEFORE You make that decision, then Reyes has to be the guy.
Since we’re on the topic of moving on after giving guys a full and fair chance, I wonder at what point the Cubs make a decision on Rafael Ortega. It’s possible they let him ride through the end of the year since he’s the most natural center fielder left on the roster, but Christopher Morel and Nelson Velazquez can both play out there. After a great stretch in the middle of the year, Ortega, 31, has fallen off hard the last month+. If he’s not going to make it through the winter on the 40-man – and, at this point, I don’t think he should – then it might be time to move those ABs to someone else, too.
From Hoyer, on Reyes (NBC): “He’s a guy who’s shown huge power in the big leagues and had really good years in ’19 and ’21. Obviously he struggled this year, but we felt like it was a good opportunity to take a chance on. Carter [Hawkins] knows him from Cleveland and he knows the struggles he’s had this year …. If we can bring him in here and get a chance to get to know him and see if we can get him back on track, we have control for a couple of years.” In other words, it’s the Jackson Frazier situation: small chance of working out, but if it does, you get multiple years. So why not take a chance on a guy who has had as much past success as Reyes?
Here’s a tweet that’ll make you angry but I just find it funny (the second one):
My quick look at Reyes, by the way, is that the quality of his contact is still really strong this year. He was always one of the rare birds in that respect (think Patrick Wisdom), but his challenge was in making enough contact for it to matter (think … Patrick Wisdom!). This season, it seems like a whole lot of things have diminished just a little bit for him, and together have produced the ugly results: he’s seeing more pitches in the strike zone than usual, he’s swinging at pitches in the zone less than usual, he’s making contact with pitches in the zone less than usual, etc. It seems like he’s rarely putting himself in a good position to succeed, and when he does get those in-the-zone opportunities to do damage, he isn’t doing it as consistently as he used to. So the power is down, the strikeouts are up, and the walks are down. There are real issues here (though it’s also been only 70 games for him, since he missed a month with a hamstring injury).
The Cubs like to work with this profile, and they believe they’ve had a lot of success at the margins with guys like Wisdom, and Nelson Velazquez, and Narciso Crook. Reyes arguably has more natural talent than all those guys and has had far more big league success. If it doesn’t work out, all they lose is the $1.5 million in salary they’ll be paying him for these two months.
Speaking of Velazquez, he had himself a great night at the plate:
The night saw Velazquez top the 100 plate appearance mark, and he’s still producing: .239/.307/.489/119 wRC+. That, despite a .286 BABIP that seems extremely low given his typical level in the minors, his speed, and the quality of his contact. He has the profile of a guy you’d expect to have something more like a .320 BABIP.
Excellent choices from MLB for the mic’d up players at the Field of Dreams Game: Ian Happ and Joey Votto.
Great ending to last night’s game: