Chicago Cubs: Alex Avila would be a perfect fit

The Cubs have been searching for a backup catcher since Miguel Montero told you how he really feels about Jake Arrieta.

They then brought up rookie Victor Caratini who doesn’t really look particularly special.  Then rumors about the Cubs being interested about Justin Verlander and Alex Avila came up.

While the rumors have cooled off with Verlander now that the Cubs acquired Quintana, Alex Avila seems to still be on the table.  Since he’s still on the table, I like for the Tigers to pass the Cubs Avila and some salt (good name for a new Mexican dish).

Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘This is Wilson Contreras’ team.  We don’t need another catcher!’  Jeez made up guy, calm down.

If Avila ends up coming to the Cubs, he by no means would assume the role of starting catcher, barring an unforeseen injury.

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.