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Chicago Cubs: The Carlos Gonzalez experiment is hardly a failure
To this point, it’s fair to say Carlos Gonzalez has not performed the way many Chicago Cubs fans hoped he would. Despite his uninspiring play, I don’t think it’s fair to call the signing a complete failure.
I give the Chicago Cubs credit. With Ben Zobrist away and potentially having played his last game for the team, the Cubs had a hole in their outfield depth. Aside from the three starters, Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora and Jason Heyward, they didn’t have anyone else on the big league roster to play the outfield on a daily basis.
Yes, I know Kris Bryant is capable of playing in the outfield and moves around the field a lot but in my opinion, the lineup looks best when he is at third base.
So instead of waiting before it became a glaring hole for the team, Chicago was proactive in trying to add outfield depth. They went out quickly and signed veteran Carlos Gonzalez to a minor league deal. It was a low-risk, high-reward move made by the front office that gave the Cubs a reliable fourth outfielder.
Chicago Cubs: Not much to write home about offensively
As a Cub, Gonzalez has only played in 15 games so far but he has done nothing to write home about. In 40 at-bats, he’s hitting a career-low .175 at the plate with just seven total base hits. Earlier in the season, Gonzalez hit just .210 at the plate with the Cleveland Indians, which led to him being released.
He really just isn’t seeing the ball well at all and is striking out at the highest clip of his career. He has struck out in 19 of his 49 plate appearances which comes out to a staggering 38.8 percent mark.
Now, I’m not going to try to sit here and defend these numbers because I really can’t. They are not good and he has clearly not been good at the plate. But at the time the Cubs signed Gonzalez they didn’t have many better options.
Personally, I would still much rather throw Gonzalez out there than Mark Zagunis. And who was that other guy they called up for a weekend series, Jim Adduci? Over the course of a long season, neither of those guys should be considered as the Cubs fourth outfielder.
Chicago Cubs: Team is working with what it has right now
During Zagunis’ short stint in the big leagues this season he rarely played and he failed to produce when he did. He only played in 29 games and took a total of 35 at-bats in which he hit just .257 at the plate. He also struck out 15 times in comparison to just four walks which adds up to a 3.75 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
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Not to mention, Gonzalez’s glove in the outfield is considerably better than that of Zagunis. For proof, I don’t think you need to look any further than Gonzalez’s potential game-saving catch against the Los Angeles Angels in his first game as a Cub. Gonzalez is still a 3-time Gold Glove winner, after all.
As for Adduci, there’s really not much to say. He could never really have been a serious option in the Cubs outfield, he made sense to bring up as opposed to burning someone else’s options. He appeared in just two games, took five at-bats and failed to record a hit while striking out three times.
Of course, the Cubs also could have called up Ian Happ who has been working on his game at Triple-A. But it still doesn’t look like they are ready to call him back up just yet as he’s hitting just .221 at the plate and has struck out 89 times this season. The Gonzalez signing allows Happ to continue his work in the minors and they don’t have to rush him and risk jeopardizing his development.
As for Gonzalez, if he really continues to struggle and doesn’t figure it out the Cubs can always release him. They got him on a cheap deal and aren’t hamstrung financially by him.
Next. Willson Contreras and Javier Baez named All-Star starters. dark
But for the time being, there really aren’t any better options. For now, I see the CarGo experiment continuing unless the Cubs are able to find a better option via the trade market or decide to call someone up.