Chicago Cubs: Team’s recent slide aided by struggling depth

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(Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /

The recent 2-5 road trip for the Chicago Cubs was frustrating for several reasons. Some losses were close to being wins as a lot of pieces have been hot and cold.

Some Chicago Cubs fans may be a bit worried about how the team has performed this past week, and on the road in general. With Sunday night’s loss to the Dodgers, their road trip ended at 2-5, and they have not won a road series since May 19th. It ended with stranding two on and nobody out in the ninth in what looked like another possible 9th inning rally. It was all for not.

Outside their outburst against the Rockies last Wednesday, the offense has been struggling. Sure they faced some great pitching, and beating the Dodgers at home is hard, but it has seen some major rough patches the past several weeks. Overall on the season, the Cubs are one of the best offensive teams in baseball, but lately, the inconsistency has reared its ugly head. What is going on?

Looking at the position players right now, one thing seems obvious; the depth outside the central core is not producing right now. Depth is something the Cubs had working great for them the past several years and has proven to be an essential part of success. The main core of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Willson Contreras cannot do everything, and it is harder to win when others are struggling.

Struggling depth

This is not to say every single person, not including those four are doing poorly. David Bote is doing well, Kyle Schwarber has been hitting lately, and Victor Caratini has had a very impressive start, but a lot of the others are struggling. We have already seen the Mark Zagunis experiment not work out, and Jim Adduci came and went fast. Here is a look at some key depth guys on the roster.

(Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Since returning from suspension, Addison Russell continues to disappoint.

No doubt this is the name that makes Cubs fans teeth grind the most, for a good reason. So far in the 31 games, he has played in he is slashing .230/.296/.379 with four homers with a 73 wRC+. His defense has been exceptional, but the bat is not there. Some swings have been very ugly, some of which the bat goes further than the ball.

There was a brief time where Addison Russell was swinging the bat well and hitting for some pop, but so far in June his wRC+ is at 1, and his slash is .156/.237/.156 with a 28.9% K rate. That translates to just five hits this month with none of them being an XBH.

Despite the struggles, he has been taking most of the duty at second base the past week with either Bote at third or on the bench. It is probably time to see more Bote at second over Russell or give Robel Garcia a try.

(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: The struggles for the veteran utility man have gotten so bad that he is not even an option to go to anymore.

It is still hard to believe that Daniel Descalso was once mashing and coming up with big hits in early April. He looked like a perfect addition, but since his ankle injury, it has gone way downhill. On the season he is hitting .190/.287/.285 with 55 wRC+ and a -0.6 fWAR.

In since May 1st, Descalso is hitting .098/.211/.131 with three RBI and one XBH. His wRC+ in May was -13 and has only played in nine games so far in June. Keep in mind he went from having a 102 wRC+ in April to having it in the negatives in May. It has unfortunately for him gotten so bad he has been riding the bench in both starting and PH opportunities. In April Descalso hits where Caratini did in Sunday night’s game in the ninth inning.

A lot of people want him DFAed which is a bit harder for the Cubs since he signed a two-year deal. Can he turn it around? Hopefully, Descalso has had some decent seasons recently, and the team could use him being productive again. This drop was incredibly dramatic.

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Has the experiment officially failed?

Theo Epstein took a flyer on the former Rockies All-Star which made sense. He is only 33 and has a very good resume to his name. However, so far, the results have not been desired. Despite some hits early on and some good at-bats, Carlos Gonzalez is hitting just .214/.324/.393 in 10 games as a Cub.

One of the biggest problems is that the bat looks slow. He is not catching up to pitches he once crushed and not coming up with timely hits. This was an issue earlier this year when he was with the Indians, who let him go after 30 games with them. It is hard to see the struggles from a very likable guy who seems to be a great clubhouse presence. But, the results with the stick have to come.

Yeah, 10 games is a pretty small sample size, so it is hard for me to call it a complete failure just yet. However, the trend is not looking all that promising, and if it continues, he may be DFA’d when other reinforcements arrive.

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: It has been a roller coaster for Albert Almora but glimmers of hope show.

Albert Almora Jr. is by no means the worst player on the Cubs. He has had spurts of productivity and still plays a fine centerfield. In fact, he is one homer shy of his career high, so he has had some better power strokes this year. However, the overall numbers are still not quite where we want them to be.

So far, he is at a .251/.294/.407 slash with eight homers, an 80 wRC+ and a 0.6 fWAR. Not terrible, not great, overall mediocre. Despite hitting a few more bombs than his usual pace, his groundball rate is at 55.8% which is a bit higher than his career 50.5% mark. The BABIP is around .270, so he is not getting the fortune he was getting in the first half last year where more of those grounders squeaked through. Lastly, his walk rate is right where it usually is, which is around 5%, so he is still not walking much at all.

Almora is a career .282/.320/.411 hitter in 397 games. He is not going to be an OBP machine and likely not a 20+ homer slugger. For the time being, he is pretty much a platoon player/late-inning defensive glove. It would be nice if Almora can make those good spurts he has had last a bit longer.

Cubs bats have been downright awful in June. dark. Next

What makes the struggling depth even more frustrating is that there is currently no Ben Zobrist to aid the core. The Cubs miss him. Theo and Co. may need to do some more shifting soon.

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