Beloved former Cubs slugger strangely resurfaces with Mets' sinking ship

The Chicago Cubs' sweep of the New York Mets last week seemingly pushed New York closer to a reset. While David Stearns has been giving a vote of confidence as the team's President of Baseball Operations, Carlos Mendoza has been fired, and the trade of David Peterson seems to put the Mets on a path toward selling at the deadline.

Adding to the chaos for the Mets is that they are now dealing with an injury to Marcus Semien. Semien suffered a Grade 3 strain of his left hip flexor, an injury that carries a timeline of, minimally, a couple of months.

Perhaps that was the reason for the Mets turning to a beloved former Cubs for additional infield depth. The Mets have signed Christopher Morel to a minor-league deal that includes multiple opt-out dates for the 27-year-old.

Mets are the latest team to find out the Christopher Morel truth the Cubs already know

Morel's tenure with the Cubs was certainly filled with memorable moments. Given the emotion that he played with, it was easy for Cubs fans to fall in love. That love made some fans blind to the idea that Morel not only hit the ceiling of his offensive potential in Chicago, but was headed in the wrong direction.

It's part of the reason why Jed Hoyer was comfortable including him in the deal for Isaac Paredes at the 2024 trade deadline. In the time since, the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins have found out what the Cubs knew: Morel is a flawed offensive player. While he does have positional versatility, it's not to the extent that he deserves a spot with a big-league team.

Between Semien's injury and a potential sell-off at the deadline, it would seem that there's a chance Morel returns to the majors with the Mets before the end of the season. In his last showing, with the Marlins, Morel posted a .425 OPS while striking out over 38% of the time.

It's very easy to root for Morel. That said, until he finds an approach that limits the strikeouts while maximizing the raw power he has, it's hard to point to scenario where he will be successful moving forward. Nonetheless, given his age and versatility, teams are going to continue to take fliers on him, hoping they can unlock what the Cubs briefly saw.

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