Chicago Cubs: Terrance Gore needs to be a member of this team in 2020

Next season, the Chicago Cubs will boast a 26th roster spot – which gives them the flexibility to add a specialist. That specialist should be Terrance Gore.

Regardless of your feelings and inclinations about how good the Chicago Cubs will be in 2020, they have the pieces in place to be successful if things break the right way. Point blank. Period.

A team with the versatility of the Cubs as now constituted should take advantage of said versatility and flexibility by adding a specialist with the extra man all MLB teams will be allowed to carry in the upcoming season. It is one of the arguments I made for keeping Tommy La Stella last fall when the Cubs traded away “3AM” to the Angels – specialists who can do one thing and one thing well are super useful on a team where you have multiple guys who are able to competently move around the infield and outfield.

While you could make the case for any number of specialists in the game today, one thing the Cubs have been missing from their squad over the last couple years is a speedster. A burner. A guy who can swipe a bag any time he wants.

Enter Terrance Gore.

Sure, the Cubs did have Gore for a few weeks, and were able to deploy him in the Wild Card game in 2018. However, they didn’t have him over the course of a season and did not commit to him in a specific and understood role. What I’m proposing with Gore as the 26th man is this: take full advantage of his unique and elite skill set over and entire 162 game schedule and, hopefully, beyond.

Chicago Cubs: You’d see a lot of this with Gore on the roster for 162 games

Gore is one of the most elite base stealers in an era where stealing bags is no longer a thing. One of the reasons it’s no longer a thing is that it’s not worth the risk with most would-be thieves. Unless you can steal bases three out of four times or better, it’s just not worth it.  While run expectancy value and data changes from year to year and is obviously different from team to team, having a guy that can swipe bases at an 80-90 percent clip consistently is worth his weight in gold.

Thing is, most teams don’t have that guy or don’t want to waste a spot on that guy. Whether it’s Gore or another guy like him who is just blistering the base paths, most teams don’t consider carrying an extra guy just to attempt to steal bases and pinch run worth the roster spot.

What I’m proposing is to sign Gore, who is currently a free agent, and do the following: use him. Use him as often as you can where it makes sense. For new Cubs manager David Ross to make this added specialist work as the 26th man, here’s how to use him to take full advantage of his mind-boggling speed.

In any game that is close (tied, one run game, two run game) after the sixth inning, you insert Gore any time a runner leads off the inning with a walk or hit. Every single time.

Chicago Cubs: This would be a common sight with Gore as pinch runner

By committing to Gore in any close game where you lead off the inning with a hit or walk, the Cubs would give themselves a runner on second somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the time. Depending on the pitching and catching combination, that number could increase as well and might even create the right conditions to send him to third as well, where he could score in even more ways with nobody out.

One factor to consider as well is that next year’s rule with relievers having to face three hitters could play into Gore and the Cubs hands as well. If a reliever comes in who is especially terrible at holding on runners/taking a huge leg kick, the decision to insert and then release Gore with reckless abandon becomes all the easier, as any walk or base hit becomes an automatic triple.

A runner on third with no outs (1.43 runs per inning) creates almost twice as much run expectancy as a runner on first (.83 runs per inning), meaning that it would be a no-brainer to send Gore on down to second and then to third.

If you could get Gore to appear in half the games over the course of a season in this role and he scores 50-60 runs, wouldn’t that be worth the roster spot?

The other piece to consider is how nervous and uneasy Gore’s presence makes the other team. Whether it’s the manager in the dugout, the catcher, the pitcher, or the defense behind said pitcher, Gore creates a maelstrom of opportunity for the Cubs and a sinking vortex of feeling for their opponent. With so much focus sure to be on the guy who is definitely going to run at some point, the pitcher focuses less on the hitter and the defense knows they have to rush everything.

Chicago Cubs: Gore running for Rizzo? Yes and… No

There would also be the problem of taking out established hitters or even superstar hitters in the seventh or eighth inning who would then have their spots come up again in the ninth or tenth innings in a still tied or close game.

Running for Anthony Rizzo with Gore and then having Rizzo’s spot come up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in a close game would not be ideal. The flip-side to this argument is, of course, the fact that you’re probably a run closer in the game because Gore scored when you ran for Rizzo earlier in the game.

Other considerations specifically geared toward the Cubs that make this less palatable is their extreme penchant for swinging and missing. They did it more than any other team in 2019 and they have struggled at times over the last few years at producing runs with runners on. While they have scored boatloads of runs over the past five seasons, they’ve also left a small or medium-sized village on base. Having a runner at second instead of first is great, but who’s to say the Cubs will even take advantage of that if it happens?

There’s also the impact on the hitter who is up to bat when Gore takes off for second or third. Does the runner take a strike (although pitchouts and nervous pitching would also be more common) that is hittable on the first pitch to allow Gore to get to second? I don’t particularly feel this is as big an issue with how negatively Gore will affect the pitcher and catcher on the other team, but it surely is an issue worth looking into should the Cubs be serious about going this avenue.

While there are considerations, and Gore may not ultimately be the guy to push all your chips in with, this fan would love to see the Cubs commit to the idea of using a “burner” more regularly late in games to give the Cubs any advantage they can get.