Four Players the Cubs Need to Call Up Sooner Rather than Later
Well, at least Opening Day was fun. We’ll always have that undefeated month of March for at the time, our first-place Cubs! The weekend, well, not that good. You think it’s too early to overreact? Ha! We’re sports fans. We were overreacting after the first jam Marcus Stroman got into in the first inning on Opening Day. However, the moves that I want to see the Cubs make sooner rather than later could be categorized as me overreacting after three games, but it’s not like myself and others didn’t already want to see these guys up on the team to begin the season.
After winning 4-0 on Thursday, the Cubs lost to the Brewers 3-1 and 9-5 to close out the opening series at Wrigley Field. The offense was frustrating to watch and the bullpen had a rough one on Sunday. Here’s a list of four players who should probably be on the team already and will no doubt be up with the Cubs eventually in 2023. Again, hopefully that’s sooner rather than later.
Christopher Morel
Like I said when the decision was made before Opening Day, it’s fine and ultimately Christopher Morel getting every-day starts at Triple-A to begin the 2023 season will be better for his long term development. However, you can make the argument that Morel could be getting regular playing time on this current roster over guys like Nick Madrigal, Miles Mastrobuoni and Luis Torrens, who combined for four starts against the Brewers and had 16 plate appearances.
Mastrobuoni started in right field on Opening Day, while Madrigal got back-to-back starts at third base during the weekend and Torrens was the designated hitter on Sunday. Those three hitters went a combined 3-for-15, with a walk.
I know Morel has to improve his plate discipline because his strikeout rate was through the roof to end 2022, but the Cubs could also use some of this.
Matt Mervis
Oh and speaking of power and speaking of players who have shown a lot of improvement in lowering their strikeout rate and increasing their walk rate while maintaining big power numbers, why the hell is Matt Mervis being kept in Triple-A over Eric fucking Hosmer.
Mervis had a monster Opening Day for the Iowa Cubs and after a bad second game he came back on Sunday and reached base two more times and scored twice.
Don’t get me wrong, I was a fan of the Luis Torrens signing and I still believe he is a quality depth catcher for this team, but also Mervis should probably be getting these DH at-bats whether it’s against left-handed pitchers or not.
Maybe the space on the roster will have to come until the end of April, when we normally see promotions across the minor leagues and by that time hopefully the Cubs will have figured out that Hosmer doesn’t need to be taking away playing time from one of the very few power-hitting lefties in their farm system that’s ready for the next challenge.
Jeremiah Estrada, Cam Sanders
Last year the Cubs called up right-handed pitcher Jeremiah Estrada after he struck out more than 14 batters per nine innings when he was dominating in the minors. It was only a five-game sample size for the young righty in his first cup of coffee in the majors, but Estrada showed he has MLB stuff, striking out eight in 5.2 innings. He showed the nasty stuff again in spring training and he’s starting the season with the Iowa Cubs exactly where he left off last season.
Estrada struck out two batters in his first inning of work for the Iowa Cubs in their season-opener and it sure would be great if the Cubs had a few more guys in the bullpen that could strike out hitters instead of getting burned by weak contact.
And I get it, the Cubs really like Julian Merryweather and so did I after spring training, but the leash has to be short on him and a few other relievers who do not have a proven track record of success despite showing glimpses of great stuff.
Just like Estrada, fellow right-handed pitcher Cam Sanders will get called up to the Cubs. Another guy who has great velocity and the ability to come in out of the bullpen and shut down the other team.
Yes it’s only been three games, but even if things went good during the weekend, these same players would still be on my quick list of deserving a look in the majors ASAP.