Chicago Cubs: What does the future hold for Ben Zobrist?

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I know Ben Zobrist is the World Series MVP. I have a feeling that I’ll have to reinforce this throughout the article.

Let’s face facts; Ben Zobrist has had a lackluster 2017 campaign thus far. He currently has a slash line of .224/.311/.380 in just 73 games this year.

Counting only seasons where he played over 52 games, he has career lows in batting average, on-base percentage, OBP, and many other categories.

Keep in mind, Zobrist is 36-years-old, that’s about 83 in baseball years (shout out to 83 nation). According to his Baseball Reference page, Zobrist is just a 0.5 WAR player. In just 63 games, Ian Happ (aka the next Zobrist) is already a 0.9 WAR player.

Zobrist still has two years left on his deal with the club, but what does the future hold for the World Series MVP?

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

Zobrist has been known for his versatility throughout his entire career.

The thing is, he hasn’t looked all that versatile lately. For all intents and purposes, Zobrist is a second baseman. Can he physically stand in the outfield with a glove on? Yes, but he looks extremely uncomfortable while doing so.

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Whenever a fly ball is hit to him in the outfield, he gets the ‘deer in the headlights’ look. Zobrist can play second base, but he isn’t even the best second base option. The best option at second would be Javier Baez.

If Zobrist can’t play the outfield and he isn’t the best second baseman – where do you put him? There isn’t a good fit.

If there were a DH in the NL, that wouldn’t change a whole lot for Zobrist. You could put Kyle Schwarber at DH (where he belongs), Baez at second, Happ in left, and everyone else would fall into their usual position.

For his sake, Zobrist should’ve been rooting against Ian Happ. Obviously, Zobrist isn’t that guy, but now that Happ has shown that he’s statically better than him, Zobrist doesn’t seem to fit anywhere.

Once again, I acknowledge that Ben Zobrist is the 2016 World Series Most Valuable Player.

When the Cubs signed Zobrist to a 4-year, $56 million deal during the 2015 Winter Meetings, they knew that he was probably going to be bad for the last year of that deal.

I’m not sure if they predicted that he would be bad for the last three years on the deal, though. Let’s be honest; there’s little to no chance that Zobrist gets better.

This is what happens to players when they get older; they get worse. I’m not mad at Zobrist for any of this. And don’t think that some crazy diet or workout is going to jolt him back to 2015 Zobrist because it won’t.

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I think at some point next year; you’ve got to cut him. Maybe you could bump him upstairs and give him some fake advisory job like David Ross, Ryan Dempster, Kerry Wood, etc.

Zobrist can eat for free the rest of his life and be known as 2016 World Series MVP. The fact of the matter is, he isn’t good right now, and he isn’t going to get any better. Sorry.

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I know Ben Zobrist is the World Series MVP. I have a feeling that I’ll have to reinforce this throughout the article.

Zobrist has been known for his versatility throughout his entire career.

More from Cubbies Crib

When the Cubs signed Zobrist to a 4-year, $56 million deal during the 2015 Winter Meetings, they knew that he was probably going to be bad for the last year of that deal.

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