NEWSLETTER
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. We knew this was a possibility, but I don’t think anyone was actually expecting this news. ALEXANDER CANARIO IS COMING UP TO THE BIG LEAGUES!!!
Big scoop from Jesse Rogers on the Cubs’ positional call-up tomorrow:
As you know, rosters tomorrow expand from 26 to 28, which means the Cubs will be adding another pitcher (reportedly Shane Greene) and another position player. The Cubs don’t have an obvious everyday need on the positional side, so whoever was getting the call tomorrow, it would have to be in a complementary role.
The reason Canario was on the radar was because he has enormous power in his bat, is already on the 40-man roster, and is raking at Triple-A Iowa. The reason Canario was not expected by many to be the call-up is simply because, developmentally, he does need playing time right now. So for him to come up and mostly sit the bench while awaiting opportunities could be a very tough adjustment for a young player. But having that righty power off the bench to match up against lefties is probably going to be tantalizing, and there’s something to be said for the experience of getting to work with the big league coaching staff, of living the big league life, and of facing big league pitchers.
On the season at Iowa, Canario is hitting .276/.342/.524/109 wRC+, but you’ll recall that he was coming back from two very serious offseason injuries and surgeries. Over the last month he’s hit .303/.369/.624/138 wRC+. His timing and power are back, and the athleticism has him playing all over the outfield. He’s a good player to have available.
I expect he’ll mostly get pinch hitting opportunities in the right match-ups, and might occasionally start against lefties or when a couple other outfielders are sitting. Could he steal any DH starts from a guy like Christopher Morel, who has been struggling? It’s not impossible. I think Canario would probably have to be scorching hot out of the gate in limited opportunities in order to get David Ross to write his name in the lineup more often, and I just wouldn’t bet on that happening. Instead, I just look for him to be a nice complementary player for now, and for him to get some experience.
More on Canario from yesterday’s post about him heading to the Arizona Fall League after the season:
Getting back to full health was always the number one priority for Alexander Canario in the 2023 season.
The then-22-year-old outfield prospect was on something of a rocket ship last year, rising from High-A to Double-A, and from Double-A to Triple-A, putting up prodigious numbers along the way. He’d cemented himself as a clear top-10 prospect in the Cubs’ increasingly loaded system, and I think you absolutely could have made an overall top-100 argument at the time the season ended.
But we know what happened from there. While playing winter ball, an errant throw from shortstop threw off Canario’s approach to first base just enough that he hit the bag awkwardly, broke his ankle, flopped to the ground and dislocated his shoulder in the process. It was almost as injured as a player can get on a single play. Each of the damaged joints required surgery. With this particular ankle surgery being very significant and with a baseball player’s shoulder being a shoulder, it was impossible to know whether Canario could come back to play high-level baseball at all, much less at the output he was showing in 2022, MUCH-ER LESS-ER develop further from there into a big league contributor.
So, as I said, the 2023 season was really just about getting Canario to full health and back on a baseball diamond. I truly did not expect – or even let myself hope for – more than that.
Obviously Canario, himself, expected much more. He tore through the rehab process, and then the ramp up process, and here we are now, looking at a guy who is back to obliterating the ball at Triple-A ….
Given that 2024 is Canario’s final option year – he’s been on the 40-man roster since the Cubs acquired him from the Giants – it makes all the more sense to ensure he gets as much development time this year as possible. I’m sure it also wouldn’t hurt to give other teams more time to evaluate his progress and project his future, in the event Canario’s name comes up in offseason trade talks.
