Chicago Cubs: Alex Avila would be a perfect fit

When I mention Avila – what pops up in your head?  Stud?  First ballot Hall of Famer?  Absolute beast?  Well, not exactly.

I feel like I can go out on a limb and say that unless Alex Avila turns into Babe Ruth, he will most likely not be in Cooperstown when he retires.

Now that by no means makes him a bad player.  His numbers this year are actually quite good.  Through 71 games thus far, he has a .286 batting average, a .411 OBP, 11 bombs, and an OPS of .914.

Those are just solid numbers, they’re really good numbers – especially for a catcher.  Those numbers may be a little inflated because he hasn’t played a whole lot, but 71 games isn’t exactly a small sample size.

According to his Baseball Reference page, Avila is a 2.4 WAR player!  Wilson Contreras’ WAR?  2.6. Now I can see you the baseball fan reading this going, ‘WAR isn’t always accurate!  Wilson is so much better, I can’t believe you would even bring this up!’

My response is, in through the nose – hold for four seconds – out through the mouth.  I’m not suggesting that Avila and Contreras are comparable players or would even compete for a job.  All I’m saying is that Avila would certainly be a more viable option than Victor Caratini.

Before this season, Avila was having a rough go of it, to say the least. In fact, 2012 was the last year he batted over .230.

Avila has admitted to battling concussion problems in the past as well.  There was even some talk about whether or not he would retire after an awful two-year stretch with both the Tigers and the White Sox.

In 2015 and 2016, Avila played a combined 124 games and batted .191 in 2015 and .213 in 2016. He then was signed by his dad.  Fittingly, his dad, Al Avila, is the GM of the Detroit Tigers.

Al Avila signed Alex to a one year two million dollar deal this past offseason.  Then seemingly all of a sudden, Alex Avila made like Angela Bassett and got his groove back (new idea for a sequel – Alex Avila gets cast as Stella).

The point is, with Avila putting up these numbers on only a two million dollar paycheck seems to be the perfect fit.

I could foresee the Cubs giving up a guy like Tommy La Stella and maybe package Caratini to make this deal work.

Avila could be a rental, or you could maybe convince him to stay now that the Cubs have caught fire (knock on wood) in the second half.

Rumors between Avila and the Cubs have been going on for a while now, so is it going to happen?

I’m not entirely sure either way.  There’s a little bit more than a week until the trade deadline, so there’s still time.

One thing I wouldn’t rule out is that I don’t know if Al Avila will be able to trade his son.  They would probably say, ‘it’s just business’ but I think Thanksgiving dinner at the Avila house might get a little awkward.

“Could you pass the stuffing, Alex?”

“Why don’t you ask Tommy La Stella to pass you the stuffing, DAD?!  GOSH, I’m going to my room!”

Next: Cubs look to set the tone in trade market

Anyway besides that little scene that took place in my weird mind, I wouldn’t rule it out as a factor.  The Cubs don’t really have a lot to offer farm system wise, which is okay.

Quick side-note, for all you Cubs fans complaining about the Cubs having ‘no farm system’ please be quiet; I’m asking nicely.

In conclusion, Alex Avila could fill a very important role with the Cubs, but I’d say the likely hood of the deal going down is about 50/50.