Chicago Cubs: Five reasons the team parted ways with Kyle Schwarber

Chicago Cubs: Sometimes you just need to slap one the other way…

This is something I’ve long railed on the Cubs about, because they never really gave Schwarber a fighting chance. Many have pointed to the fact that Schwarber has struggled against lefties his entire career as a way to show that he can only really be a strong side platoon guy.

The problem is, if you never give someone chance to do something, make mistakes, learn from mistakes, and put said knowledge into practice, you’re really just feeding into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That’s what has happened with Schwarber and left-handed pitchers. Because he struggled mightily against southpaws in his first couple season or two, everyone just wrote him off as another lefty who couldn’t hit lefties.

Nevermind the fact that the numbers meant nothing because they were so few and far between. Nevermind the fact that most of Schwarber’s opportunities were against an elite left-hander coming out of the pen to get just him out. Nevermind the fact that Joe Maddon would sit Schwarber in the middle of a hot streak or the day after he hit a bomb because a lefty was pitching.

Schwarber has had inconsistent results against lefties in his career for sure, but he’s only had 435 career plate appearances against them. Go check out Anthony Rizzo‘s early career numbers against lefties and you’ll see why I’m discussing this. Funny thing is, it was after about 400 career at bats against southpaws that Rizzo started putting it together in a productive way.

But, numbers are still numbers, and Schwarber has yet to produce meaningfully or consistently against lefties- and it’s definitely a reason in letting him go.