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.