2 Chicago Cubs who will be costly in arbitration and 3 who will not

Costly: Mike Tauchman

Similar to Patrick Wisdom, I don't really see any point in giving Mike Tauchman his projected $2 million. I understand that the summer of Mike Tauchman was exciting and featured some of the best moments of the year, but let's not forget that 2023 was one of just two seasons where Tauchman has seen success at the major league level.

Since 2017, Tauchman has floated around four different teams and never collected more than 250 at-bats until this year. At 32 years old, I don't think the Cubs can seriously consider giving Tauchman this kind of money to be a role player.

By no stretch of the imagination should Tauchman be getting starts in center field next year if Cody Bellinger returns to the team. I know that is a really big if but even if Bellinger goes elsewhere, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alexander Canario are better all-around players than Tauchman. Tauchman's defense and speed alone are liabilities compared to Crow-Armstrong.

All I'm saying is the projected $4.6 million currently slated to be split between Tauchman and Wisdom could be used in a better way in my opinion.

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