Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Well that would probably depend.
Theo seems content to build his staff via FA. Mostly because it's much faster and they appear ready to win pretty soon.
If Schwarber could somehow stay behind the plate AND McKinney continued on his present track, they could find room for all of those guys. Almora in CF, Soler in LF, McKinney in RF with Bryant - Russell - Castro/Baez - Rizzo on the IF and Schwarber at C.
Now again, that's banking on a lot of things breaking right for them, but that could still be Theo's plan. Ultimately, those guys seem to be about as good at finding bats as the Cardinals are at finding arms. Now if Schwarber can't stay behind the plate they may not want to force McKinney into CF so they'd move somebody. The time to get someone like Syndergaard for Baez has almost certainly passed so they may just ride him out.
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I think Schwarber is going to be given every chance to play catcher. The Cubs and Schwarber have made no hints at moving to LF.
I also don't see Soler moving to LF with the players on the current roster.
I could envision a couple routes the Cubs could go.
C - Schwarber
1B - Rizzo
2B - Russell/Baez/LaStella
3B - Bryant/Baez
SS - Castro/Russell
LF - McKinney/Bryant/Not currently on roster
CF - Almora/McKinney
RF - Soler
I don't think McKinney provides improvement over Soler in RF.
I also don't think Baez's stock has dropped dramatically. It was definitely hurt by those 50 or so MLB games, but if he can show he can get back to hitting in AAA someone will take the risk, if not the Cubs and roll with him and trade Castro. If the Cubs were worried about losing that OBP, they could move Baez to 3rd, Bryant to LF, put Russell at SS, and LaStella at 2nd.