Chicago Cubs: The unusual suspects leading the way

Chicago Cubs:  Victor Caratini

I’ll start with the guy that I thought the Cubs shouldn’t have necessarily replaced but brought in some competition for. Victor Caratini has proved me wrong on that, at least at the plate. This season, Caratini has played in just four games but has continued to stay hot. He’s posted a slash line of .600/.692/1.000 and a 1.692 OPS.

In his first few seasons, Caratini came out of the minors with a reputation of hitting, while the catching needed some work. But that hadn’t been the case for his early career. While he seemed to have done all he could at the plate in the minors, the bat hadn’t gotten going in his first two years. This year seems to be a different story for Caratini. Eight games in, he’s almost matched his home run total from last year (2). And last year in 200 at-bats, Caratini walked just 12 times. This season in just 13 at-bats, he’s walked three times.

It seems like he’s his bat is starting to be what we hoped for, and with the staff being what it is, that’s a big plus to have from a bottom of the order hitter.