The sweepstakes for Cuban INF Yoan Moncada‘s services is officially over, resulting in the Boston Red Sox emerging as the victor. Does that mean the Cubs missed out on yet another huge bat?
Not necessarily.
As we all know, this team is stacked from the ground up when it comes to position players with some serious power. We witnessed the debuts of guys such as Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara last season and could be expecting Kris Bryant to follow suit sometime this year.
Sooner or later the reality of having such talent will catch up with the front-office and put them in a bit of a pickle.
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While aiming to build a championship squad, you need to be able to balance out the 40-man roster as much as you possibly can – which obviously means someone will eventually have to go. Now what would have happened if the Cubs landed the 19-year-old Cuban defector?
ESPN’s Gordon Edes reports that the Cubs were among several teams ‘who have scouted Moncada or invited him in for private workouts’.
Although his position is currently unknown, he’ll more than likely serve as a utility player within the Red Sox organization until they figure out where he’s most comfortable. While they deal with that, the Cubs will need to figure out what the future holds for either Addison Russell or Starlin Castro.
Russell, 21, enters the season as one of the team’s top prospects behind Bryant and is quickly closing in on making a big league debut himself. He’s quickly proving that he’ll fit better at shortstop after finishing the 2014 campaign with a .984 fielding percentage between three affiliates.
Addison also finished with 13 home runs, 45 RBIs and 76 hits with a .295/.350/.508 clip in just 68 games compared to Castro’s 14 home runs, 65 RBIs, 154 hits and .292/.339/.438 line in 134 games.