8 Cubs that could be available at the deadline if they fall out of contention

8 Cubs that could be available at the deadline if they fall out of contention - #6: Tucker Barnhart

Woo, boy. The Tucker Barnhart experiment has not gone as the Cubs had hoped, eh? No one expects a ton from a backup catcher in terms of the bat, but the veteran has a 30 OPS+ on the year, far and away the worst offensive performance of his career.

His framing and work behind the plate has been solid, but with the emergence of and focus on Miguel Amaya, I don't see a ton of reasons to keep Barnhart in the mix and take regular at-bats away from the up-and-comer.

Barnhart has never been a bat-first backstop by any stretch, with a career OPS+ of just 80 - but he's providing less than half of that value even in his first year in Chicago. The front office and David Ross need to think long and hard how much they value his veteran leadership, because this is feeling more and more like an Eric Hosmer scenario as more time passes.

All that being said, given his deal has a $3.25 million player option for 2024, it's hard to envision a club coming off anything of value for the two-time Gold Glover. Maybe he's thrown in as an add-on in another deal, but you're not going to center anything around him because, well, his value is next-to-nil at this point.