Chicago Cubs: Five best options for designated hitter

With talk of an agreement including the DH for 2020, it’s imperative the Cubs use the spot wisely.

While the 2020 baseball season may be taking a circuitous and inexorable path around the nether regions of one of the most giant toilet bowls you’ve ever imagined, there is still hope that baseball will be played this calendar year. It may be a long shot, and it may be contrary to logic at this point, but hope does spring eternal, right?

If- and I realize that’s a colossal sized if at this moment- the 2020 season engages in any way, shape, or fashion, it seems likely that all of the games will feature a DH. Whether this is the owners, players, or MLB at work here doesn’t matter; what matters is that it seems as though the DH will be part of the package, and the Senior Circuit will be forever altered.

With this in mind, it’s imperative that the Cubs can maximize this position to their benefit, as not all clubs will be able to do so without notice and as presently constructed. The Cubs, however, have had an extra hitter sitting around on the bench for most of the Maddon era.

Chicago Cubs: Could one of these guys end up as DH?

Whether it was Jorge Soler, Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, Jon Jay, Ben Zobrist, Ian Happ, Chris Coghlan, or Tommy La Stella, the Cubs have had a veritable smorgasbord of competent or even star players sitting around and waiting to get in a game at various points in time. Heck, you might also be able to put together an All-Star lineup with all of the guys who Maddon couldn’t squeeze into games over the past five seasons.

Herein lies the beauty of the DH for the team. While they may not be entirely as loaded as they were the past few years, there are still plenty of options to make the Cubs the favorites to score the most runs in the National League.

Any discussion about the team and the DH over the past few years has been ultra-focused on slugger Kyle Schwarber. While Schwarber had been a great option at the DH for the Cubs in recent seasons, that’s not the case now. The Cubs could put Ian Happ out in left field, but Happ isn’t a better or more natural left fielder than Schwarber despite being faster.

Plus, there’s an excellent chance Happ might end up in centerfield at some point, so having him go to left puts Albert Almora in center, something most Cubs fans probably don’t want to see (at least from an offensive perspective).

Chicago Cubs: One catches, one mashes

The next option for the Cubs involves two different choices with one move- our two talented catchers. Victor Caratini and Willson Contreras have both shown themselves to be competent or even All-Star level players when healthy. Keeping them healthy, however, is the considerable caveat with both.

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By mixing and matching the two backstops and getting them rest as the DH while the other catches would allow the Cubs to place two potent bats in the lineup while keeping both guys fresh and saving their knees. There’s also the question of moving Contreras to left or Caratini first to make the DH position available to someone like Rizzo or Schwarber, should the teams want to go that route.

If the Cubs went the catchers as DH tandem route, it would harken back to the days where Contreras, Miguel Montero, and David Ross all made their presence felt with the bat. If you remember (and I know all of you do), Joe Maddon had to juggle the three catcher deal and took some major guff because of it, but all three played a huge part in the 2016 playoffs that culminated in a trophy for the Cubs. In fact, all three homered in the 2016 postseason, including a Ross Game 7 job and Montero’s NLCS grand slam.