Chicago Cubs need Jason Heyward to play centerfield if his bat doesn't improve

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After two disappointing offensive seasons in a row, it is more likely than not that the Chicago Cubs will never get the offensive contributions that they were hoping for when they first signed Jason Heyward to the largest free agent contract in team history.

If Jason Heyward continues to underperform at the plate, the Chicago Cubs can’t justify keeping to leave other corner outfielders on the bench and play Heyward in right. So Heyward should play a lot more centerfield this upcoming season.

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As a Cubs fan, I hope that is not the case. I hope he bounces back and he hits as well or better than he did with the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m encouraged when I hear that Jason Heyward thinks he’ll be the Cubs team MVP in 2018. If that happens on a team with Kris Bryant the 2016 MVP and Anthony Rizzo who has received MVP votes four years in a row, that would be a great accomplishment for Heyward.

We’ve all heard the stories and seen the video and the pictures of Heyward working hard on his swing shortly after the World Series both this offseason and last. And we can appreciate the dedication that Heyward showed by moving to Arizona in the offseason so he can do that work at the Cubs facility in Mesa. So we know he’s putting in the time and effort. But it is not about Heyward’s work ethnic.

Looking for a prayer?

For whatever reason Heyward just seems to have lost it. I recognize that there is a chance that the change of hitting coach gives Chilli Davis the chance to make the kind of breakthrough with Heyward that John Mallee and Erik Hinske could not.

But as an organization, the Cubs must recognize that there is a chance that the Heyward of the last two years is the version of Heyward that the Cubs might be stuck with for the rest of his contract.

If Heyward doesn’t get any better at the plate, there is nothing that says the Cubs have to keep sending him out to right field every day (even with the most expensive contract in team history).

But if you might remember that was not the original plan when the Cubs first signed Heyward. When the Cubs first signed Heyward, he was going to play mostly center field. Kyle Schwarber was projected to be the everyday left fielder, Jorge Soler was expected to be the starting right fielder, and Albert Almora was still proving himself in the minors.

That outfield configuration had been the Cubs plan for a while. The year before when the Cubs were recruiting Jon Lester, they showed him a projected line up for 2016 that featured Heyward playing center field.

Where to play everyone?

But then the front office managed a surprise one year deal with Dexter Fowler. For a brief time, we were wondering how Joe Maddon was going to find playing time for all four starting outfielders while also working Javier Baez into the lineup. You might remember that Baez played centerfield in winter ball that offseason.

In the first game of that season, there was no problem at all because the Cubs just happened to begin that season playing in an American League park against the Angels. So Soler started at DH, and right field was available for Heyward.

Then in the third game of the season, Schwarber collided with Fowler and Schwarber was out for the rest of the regular season. Soler moved over to left field, and Heyward settled into right field. Since joining the Cubs, Heyward has only started 33 games in center field.

If he were hitting as well as he did in Atlanta and St. Louis, having Heyward play right field would be fine. But the less he hits, the tougher it is to justify having Heyward play a corner outfield position even if he has won a Gold Glove at that position in both of his seasons with the Cubs. Maybe he can also win a gold glove in center field, where his offensive decline is a little more forgivable.

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Looking ahead

Moving Heyward to center field opens up a number of possibilities in right field. If the Cubs are able to sign Bryce Harper for the 2019 season, they are going to need a corner outfield spot for him. During this coming season, Baez is expected to continue to get increased playing time at second base, which means if Ben Zobrist is going to find a way into the lineup it will be with his outfield glove more often than his infield glove. And Zobrist is the closest thing the Cubs have to a natural leadoff hitter.

Although Bryant played significantly less in the outfield last year than he did in 2016, Maddon may need to do so to get a player like Tommy La Stella in the lineup without altering the double play combination. That’s what Maddon did in his first playoff game as manager of the Cubs. In the 2015 wildcard game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Maddon started Bryant in right field, so that he could play La Stella at third.

Bryant will still probably get most of his starts at third base, but having the flexibility to move him out there allows Maddon to use almost anyone who can play third to take at-bats that might otherwise have to go to an outfielder. Perhaps this season even Victor Caratini might get a few at-bats that way.

If Happ continues to play center field when he is in the outfield alongside Heyward in right, I am not going to complain about that. If Maddon thinks that is the best alignment with those two, I’m not going to argue with that decision.

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Centerfield makes sense

But Heyward is the better outfield defender, and usually, you put the better outfielder with the most range and surest hands in center and lesser one in a corner. So Maddon may eventually make that switch, the same way he ultimately switched Addison Russell and Starlin Castro‘s positions in the field despite doing the opposite for the first several months of the 2015 season.

So unless Almora plays so well that he clearly claims the starting centerfield job both in the field and at the plate, Heyward should play a lot more in centerfield this season where a defensive first player is more tolerable and to open up opportunities for Maddon to get other corner only outfielders into the game.

Next: The curious case of Alvarez

Almora is the one player on the Cubs aside from Heyward himself who has the power to make this entire situation irrelevant. If he plays so well that Almora must obviously start, then the question shifts from where Heyward should play to should Heyward even start? If he doesn’t start, Heyward will be the most expensive bench player in baseball.

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Chicago Cubs need Jason Heyward to play centerfield especially if his bat doesn’t improve