1 Chicago Cubs player you should avoid in Fantasy Baseball, and 2 that could help

Underrated

Christopher Morel (OF)

Morel is a player who is similar to Hoerner in his potential for positional flexibility. To start the season he’s projected to be an OF-only option, and in order to best help the Cubs he may just play DH.

However, what’s looking like a more and more real possibility is that the Cubs make no effort to improve their third base offerings and roll out a combination of Nick Madrigal and Patrick Wisdom at the hot corner.

If that’s the case, then the idea of Morel getting enough starts at third to get that positional versatility from a fantasy perspective isn't ridiculous and most leagues don’t ding players for their inability to produce with the glove.

What Morel can do is hit, and that’s what matters. He’s projected as the 42nd best outfielder based on Steamer which expects him to hit 25 homers, steal 10 bases, and have 71 RBI with 66 runs scored. Those are reasonable expectations but he improved pretty dramatically between his first and second seasons and I’m not quite sure he’s done improving.

If he were to come out in 2024 and hit 30 homers and steal double-digit bases I don’t think that would shock the baseball world. If you’re able to get that kind of production from a player that you draft in the 18th/19th round that would be huge, especially if he ends up with positional versatility and even better if this is a dynasty/keeper league.