Last night in San Diego, Patrick Wisdom went 0-4 at the plate with three strikeouts and a groundout. It wasn’t the only bad offensive showing of the night for the Chicago Cubs, but it was certainly the most disappointing. Why? Because all four of Wisdom’s plate appearances came against left-handed pitching, which is, you know, if nothing else, supposed to be his thing.
You convince yourself to deal with all of Wisdom’s strikeouts and mediocre results against right-handed pitching for two reasons: (1) he’ll hit more dingers than pretty much anyone else on the active roster and (2) he is supposed to *crush* left-handed pitching whenever he gets the chance. But last night? It was ugly.
Starter Blake Snell struck Wisdom out twice, before getting him to ground out softly in the sixth (73.1 MPH exit velocity). And Padres reliever Tim Hill struck him out swinging on five pitches in the ninth. Mind you, these are not guys with reverse splits for their careers, or anything like that. Wisdom, who was batting fifth because of his historic success against left-handed pitching, should have been a contributor. And he wasn’t.
Hey, it’s just one game, so whatever. Right? Well …
Unfortunately, that performance wasn’t particularly surprising given the way things have gone for him lately. Overall, Wisdom has just one hit (a single) in his last six games (21 PAs), and is slashing just .157/.259/.324 (62 wRC+) in his last 117 plate appearances dating all the way back to April 22.
That is bruuuuuutal.
But it gets worse. In his last 51 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers only, Wisdom is slashing just .170/.235/.298 (45 wRC+), with a 41.2% strikeout rate.
Can’t have that.
So what is the deal here? What is the plan? Wisdom’s defense has been mostly solid (though he did have a costly misplay last night) and it’s not like Christopher Morel or Miles Mastrobuoni or Nick Madrigal are obvious solutions. But Wisdom is not getting it done right now, not even against his should-be strength (which, by the way, is the weak side of the platoon). So basically, what I’m saying is the Cubs are screwed until and unless Wisdom bounces back.
Speaking more broadly, the problem with Wisdom not producing right now underscores where the Cubs have serious holes.
Even if you’re happy with the individual performances from your starters in left, center, right, short, second, and catcher (which, hey … I am!), playing with virtually no contributions from your third baseman, first baseman, or DH is not sustainable. And that’s what the Cubs are trying to do.
In terms of first base, maybe you can get really creative (and hopeful), letting Cody Bellinger take some starts there while Mike Tauchman rides out his hot streak in center? And at DH, maybe you can find a way to incorporate Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes, the way the Cubs did last night. None of that is perfect, but it’s at least an option. But what the heck are the Cubs going to do at third? They have no internal solution right now, outside of the hope of a Wisdom bounce-back.
That’s why yesterday I explored going outside of the organization for an old friend who could play third with plus defense and handle righties well. But it’s becoming increasingly tough to envision this team as a buyer, even at the margins, even where they could use the help the most. Tough times.