Chicago Cubs: How are replacements faring compared to the former core?

Kris Bryant is bashing while the Chicago Cubs look for an heir at the hot corner

I’d be shocked if Kris Bryant doesn’t spend the rest of his career in the Bay Area. He’s looked perfectly at home with the Giants, and even belted another home run in his first AB on Saturday against the rival Athletics at the Coliseum – his 22nd of the year and fourth in 18 games with San Francisco.

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He talked about his experience recently – and gushed over the organization and how it seems to fit him as a player and a person. Meanwhile, the Cubs have looked to a combination of Patrick Wisdom, Matt Duffy and David Bote at the hot corner, to varied results.

Wisdom, who got off to a scorching start, has gone ice-cold over his last 15 games, evidenced by a .186/.239/.419 slash. His strikeout rate is absurdly high at 39 percent and if he doesn’t re-adjust, this feel-good story could meet an untimely conclusion by the end of the season.

Duffy, who was a huge plus for the team early on in the year, is settling back into a groove at the dish and entered Saturday flirting with a .350 average over the last two weeks. Bote has been pretty not great, as has been the case for awhile now, and he clocks in roughly 35 percent below league average as an offensive player, according to OPS+.

All told, it’s about what you expect when you trade three stars with an eye toward the future. There are some intermittent bright spots, but the Cubs are clearly a rebuilding team just running out the clock on the 2021 season while former stars chase pennants on each coast.