NEWSLETTER
I don’t think anyone should try to tell you that the Cubs definitely win last night’s game, or any of the three Marlins games, if they have Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel on the roster. We can’t know that for sure.
But not knowing cuts both ways: yes, the Cubs might’ve still lost, since most of the roster would be the same … but they might’ve won in games that had razor thin margins into the late innings.
We aren’t asking guys like Mervis and Morel to come up and be saviors – that would be a terrible, and unwise, position to put them in. Instead, we’re just asking that the Cubs field their best 26-man roster while they are competitive. Right now, even though I can’t tell you for sure whether the Cubs would’ve won a couple of those games, I can tell you they aren’t fielding their best 26.
Let’s talk about two of the guys on the current roster who are “preventing” guys like Mervis and Morel from coming up, as each loomed large in last night’s loss.
In the 6th inning, the Cubs loaded the bases with one out against Carl Edwards Jr. You probably remember Carl well, and know that his cutting fastball should be death on lefties. In reality, although he’s got a SLIGHT split this year, he’s been split neutral for his career.
I say that because, when Edwin Rios was set to come up with the bases loaded, David Ross elected to pinch hit for him with Trey Mancini, who ultimately struck out. I didn’t have a problem with the decision. Mancini has been on fire, and in a split-neutral situation in a huge spot in the game, you want the best bat up there you can get.
Where I had a problem was that, if Rios is not going to be trusted in a spot like that, where his huge lefty power could be the most impactful, then why is he on the roster at all?
Rios, 29, was signed to a near-minimum deal after the Dodgers let him go, and he has a minor league option year remaining. Although he has hit in the big leagues when healthy, it’s a very small sample, and he hasn’t hit yet this year. Moreover, he’s received just 25 plate appearances TOTAL this season. He’s not hitting and he’s not being used and he’s not even trusted in a spot like last night when he does draw a rare DH start. I don’t have anything against Rios, and I do like him as depth in the org with potential upside. But against all this backdrop, why would you not rather have one of Morel or Mervis up with the big league team?
And then there’s Eric Hosmer, who popped out to end the threat.
You know the situation here. The Cubs don’t want to lose any more depth than they have to, and they prize Hosmer’s value in the clubhouse. They also don’t want to ditch a veteran who chose to sign with them (at the minimum) because they don’t want to damage their reputation with future free agents who may be in a similar spot in the future, and have lots of options. We all know that stuff. We hear it. I get it. I have contemplated it.
My response would be that it’s been five weeks now, and Hosmer is not close to performing. The glove has been gaffe-laden, that one particularly bad base-running mistake really sticks in my mind, and he’s hitting just .263/.309/.382/89 wRC+. You can go all the way back to 2018 – 635 games and 2565 plate appearances – and he’s been a slightly below average hitter. As a first baseman. Over the last calendar year, he’s hit .231/.292/.325/75 wRC+ with a 56.7% groundball rate.
I understand the thinking on bringing Hosmer into Spring Training and giving him an early season shot. But letting this play out any further is not grounded in any kind of good process. It’s just wishcasting.
As we discussed yesterday, the organization has legitimate challenges associated with bringing up Mervis and Morel from a playing time standpoint. You don’t want to bring them up and have them be part-time players or less. I do accept that point, and concede that it takes a lot of careful thinking to get it right.
But it was pretty hard for me not to notice that last night, just after writing about those challenges, both guys easily could’ve contributed.
