Cubs’ Logan Watkins tears Achilles, likely to miss season

With all the excitement surrounding the Chicago Cubs entering Spring Training, a bit of disappointing news came out of Arizona today from infielder Logan Watkins.

Watkins, the Cubs 2012 minor league player of the year, has spent short stints in each of the last two seasons with the big league team. But overall, his time at Triple-A Iowa has not produced solid results, while his numbers while in Chicago (.233, one HR, four doubles, 12 runs scored) haven’t impressed either while playing mostly second base.

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To make matters worse, Watkins has been overshadowed by the likes of Javier Baez, Addison Russel and Kris Bryant, which has only made things worse for the infielder’s chances.

Even with that being said, he was expected to compete for a possible bench spot this spring, but will likely miss the entire season now.

Watkins, 25, was drafted in the 21st round of the 2008 amateur draft. He made his debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 4 of 2013, collecting his first Major League hit.

While he had fallen behind some of the other highly touted Cubs’ prospects, he did still provide depth, which as this injury shows, can happen at any time. Until the official depth chart comes out after the spring, it’s hard to say what to expect, but as of now Arismendy Alcantara is the backup at second to Baez, while Baez is the backup to Starlin Castro. Plus, Alcantara is a reserve to essentially every outfield position.

So the loss, while seeming mundane, could be a critical loss to the Cubs this year.

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