Cubs roster needs to be shaken up

Jasen Vinlove - USA Today Sports

by Anthony Pasquale - Staff Writer - Thu Apr 06 09:20:12 GMT-04:00 2023

The Cubs broke camp with roster decisions that surprised people heading into the 2023 season. For starters, Christopher Morel, who was one of the league’s most productive rookies in 2022, was kept down in the minors to allow him to obtain the most amount of at-bats. Morel was in conversations to be the team’s starting third basemen — but sharing that competition with Nick Madrigal and Patrick Wisdom made his appearances at third base slim. Morel is a utility man, but with the acquisitions of Cody Bellinger to play center field, Eric Hosmer to play first base, and Trey Mancini to play some DH, some first base, and some outfield — Morel’s opportunities to play every day were sparse, and the Cubs preferred to allow him to get starting ABs.

Matt Mervis, one of the Cubs' top prospects who crushed pitching at all three levels in 2022 AND spring training, was also kept in the minors. Like Morel, the undrafted free agent from Duke was optioned to Triple-A to allow him more steady at-bats. Mervis plays first base and could be DH, but that is a very crowded position with acquisitions of Eric Hosmer, Trey Mancini, and Cody Bellinger — even with Seiya Suzuki on the injured list to open the season, which puts Mancini more into the right field, conversation, there were still not enough opportunities for Mervis to consider mashing.

This was puzzling to many Cubs fans, but with big league contracts like Hosmer and Bellinger and Mancini unable to be sent to the minor leagues — it makes a bit of sense to send Morel and Mervis to Triple-A to allow them to get everyday at-bats.

While you could certainly make an argument that both Mervis and Morel are top 25 players in the organization and should have made the roster — the Cubs would instead them get starting at-bats every day to fully develop into better big leaguers as opposed to coming off the bench to pinch hit or getting spot starts at the major league level.

As you would expect, both players are tearing up minor-league pitching. They are combined 7 for 22 with 2 HR, 6 RBI, 9 R, 2 2B, 1 3B to open up the campaign.

So that begs the question, who did the Cubs decide to use in those bench roles instead of Morel and Mervis?

The answer: Luis Torrens, Miles Mastrobuoni, Edwin Rios, Nick Madrigal/Patrick Wisdom.

The Cubs knew both newly acquired catcher Tucker Barnhart and veteran Yan Gomes would make the roster — but with Suzuki’s injury, they elected to break camp with a third catcher (Luis Torrens) and no true right fielder on the roster. In terms of utility roles, Miles Mastrobuoni and Edwin Rios can both play multiple positions. Nick Madrigal and Patrick Wisdom are battling for every day starts at third base, with occasional spot starts at DH or 1B/OF for Wisdom and DH or 2B for Madrigal.

Excluding Madrigal and Wisdom, who were likely slated to make the big league roster regardless, let’s look at the combined stats of Torrens, Mastrobuoni, and Rios thus far: 2-20 with a walk, 1 RBI, one run, and 7 K.

I know that the Cubs would never allow Mervis and Morel to get this spotty of action, but I think Triple-A has some better options.

David Bote has some solid big-league experience, and multi-positional utility and was on fire in Spring Training with a .313 average, a .450 on-base percentage, and ten runs driven in. He could play third base, shortstop, second base, or first base if absolutely needed, depending on off days or injuries. He is RED HOT to start the season in AAA, too, hitting .429 with a 1.000 slugging percentage early on.

Then there is Nelson Velazquez, an outfielder who provided some pop for the team down the stretch last season at the big league level. At the very least, he is an OUTFIELDER who can provide solid defense in right or left field as a spot start or hold down right field in the late innings with Suzuki on the shelf. Plus, he has opened the season hitting .462 in Iowa with a team-high six hits and a home run.

So this is how I would shake the roster out with Suzuki back, which should be soon.

Starting lineup

Nico Hoerner (2B)

Dansby Swanson (SS)

Ian Happ (LF)

Seiya Suzuki (RF)

Cody Bellinger (CF)

Trey Mancini (DH)

Eric Hosmer (1B)

Patrick Wisdom (3B)

Yan Gomes (C)

Bench