4 internal options to play first base for the Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs' lack of an everyday first baseman is starting to rear its ugly head and even cost the team wins. Of course, I am referring to Trey Mancini's costly error against the St. Louis Cardinals in game 2 of the London series. On a slow ground ball to the right side, Mancini initially tried to field the ball, but then hastily made his way to the first base bag where he attempted a bare-handed grab on a throw from Nico Hoerner. He dropped the ball which resulted in three unearned runs scoring in the inning and the Cubs wound up losing the game by 2 runs.

This isn't the first big error by Mancini, as another fielding blunder against the Pirates last week almost cost the team one of their main bullpen arms Mark Leiter Jr. The team needs a different answer at first base after also posting some of the worst offensive numbers in the league at the position. There are not many options in the trade market either (not many good ones anyway) besides maybe C.J. Cron, but he is having a down offensive year and if he struggling to hit the ball out of Coors Field then I don't think he's worth picking up. That leaves the in-house options, and here are four of them.

1. Matt Mervis

A part of me wants the Cubs to just call Matt Mervis back up and let him figure things out at the big league level. After lighting up Triple-A all last year and in the first month of 2023, Mervis got the call and seemingly walked into a brick wall at the plate. His offensive power and run production did not translate from Iowa to Chicago, and he slashed .167/.242/.289 with 3 home runs and 8 walks in 27 games. This is not exactly what anybody was hoping for Mervis but at this point, Mancini hasn't been much better.

At least with Mervis, you get good defense. The 25-year-old made more than one impressive play during his time at Wrigley so the Cubs would improve in that aspect with him on the field. But if you want to let Mervis develop for the rest of the year at Iowa, there are other options.

2. Cody Bellinger

The only guy who is proven to play gold-glove-level first base defense at the big-league level is Cody Bellinger. And you know what, that's probably where he will play for the time being with Mike Tauchman emerging as a viable option in center field. However, I feel like it's only a matter of time before Tauchman's stats come back down to Earth. If/when they do, it will be hard to justify giving the 32-year-old journeyman playing time and there is good reason to keep his leash to be short.

When this happens, Bellinger will be moved back to center field (assuming the Cubs don't trade him at the deadline) leaving the hole at first base even bigger. Unless the Cubs plan on plugging center field with Christopher Morel, which seems possible given how little they've played him at third base, Bellinger could be staying at first for the rest of the season. If that happens, they better offer him a contract extension if he continues producing at the plate.

3. Edwin Rios

After having a decent Spring Training, many thought (myself included) Edwin Rios would be a main contributor to the 2023 Cubs. But he has been anything but as the team has used him in just 18 games and he's started less than half of them. Although his numbers have been horrible, a .071 batting average with 6 walks, you can't even properly assess them because of how small his sample size is. The annoying part - for Rios especially - is the fact that this has happened for his entire big league career. Prior to signing with the Cubs, Rios spent four seasons with the Dodgers where he collected just 260 at-bats.

With the question mark at first base, maybe it's time to give Rios regular playing time not at his natural third base, but at first. He periodically filled in at first base for the Dodgers over the years so he has some experience there and his lefty bat needs a true litmus test. I honestly don't see why not with all the experimenting that has already been done this year. If not, I don't know why Rios is even on this team because he could definitely start for somebody else that isn't competing.