Chicago Cubs Prospects: Mash Mervis is begging to break our hearts again

Chicago Cubs first base prospect Matt Mervis is doing it again.

Mervis is off to an incredibly hot start in Triple-A Iowa and he’s making fans start to wonder if it’s time to dust off their “Mash” Mervis t-shirts.

The short answer is that we’ve been burned by that hot start before.

In 2023, the Cubs made the decision to keep Matt Mervis in Triple-A for more than a month to start the season. Through April, he hit .295/.407/.580 with six homers and as many walks (17) as strikeouts.

When he received the call up to the majors, the fan base was ravenous and the expectation was that he would be Anthony Rizzo 2.0.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

He hit .167/.242/.289 with 32 strikeouts in just 90 at-bats. The obvious problem he had was against solid left-handed pitching, but the bigger problem was that on more than one occasion it seemed like he had lost his confidence.

He finished his season at Triple-A last year as a totally fine player, but he certainly wasn’t the guy that necessitated a call-up in May and a DFA of Eric Hosmer.

This year, he’s hitting lefties.

He’s hitting .294/.364/.706 against left-handed pitching so far this season. That means that he’s posted an even higher slugging percentage against lefties than he has against righties where his slash-line is .355/.459/.677.

Matt Mervis is restoring his value as potential trade piece for the Chicago Cubs.

If Mervis continues this torrid pace he could become an extremely valuable piece for the Cubs.

There’s a world where the team decides that they want a left-handed bat as a potential DH and Mervis could fill that role.

However, the more likely option is that he becomes the headliner in a deal at the deadline for some relief pitching which the team sorely needs.

Many fans would have a hard time watching Mervis mash for an opposing team, but when a team has as deep of a farm as the Cubs do, it’s a necessary evil to ensure the major league team can compete at the highest level.