Finding a Roster Spot for David Bote Proves Difficult

It’s strange to say that there is little to celebrate with a 95-win team, but that’s the truth when talking about the 2018 Chicago Cubs. Winning 95 times, and earning a fourth consecutive playoff appearance is normally reason to feel good about a team. But that’s not the case in Chicago, and especially with this Cubs team.

One bright spot had been Cubs rookie, David Bote.

Bote immediately played the role of the hero from his first game on. In his first at bat, Bote drove the second MLB pitch he saw the opposite way for a run scoring, stand-up double. In Bote’s Second stint with the big league club, he had two late inning, game tying hits as well as two walk-off jacks that created an almost iconic aura around him. His heroics gained him attention from not only Cubs fans, but nationally as well.

It seemed Bote was poised to become the team’s next prospect to break into the Majors with a thunderous roar. But that roar soon became an inconspicuous meow of a baby kitten as the league’s pitchers adjusted to him and began to shut him down.

Case in point, over Bote’s first 37 games he slashed .318/.406/.506, this was Kris Bryant level of productivity. Then the league figured out who he was as a hitter, he regressed to a meager .172/.239/.323 line.

Bote is not a .300+ average guy, and he’s not a sub-.200 hitter either. But if he isn’t doing something dynamic with his bat, there isn’t a lot of room for him on the ball club. Here is the team’s current roster:

Pitchers

1. Jon Lester
2. Kyle Hendricks
3. Cole Hamels
4. Jose Quintana
5. Yu Darvish
6. Mike Montgomery
7. Tyler Chatwood
8. Steve Cishek
9. Brian Duensing
10. Carl Edwards Jr./li>
11. Brandon Kintzler
12. Brandon Morrow
13. Randy Rosario
14. Pedro Strop

Offense

1. Willson Contreras
2. Victor Caratini
3. Javier Baez
4. Kris Bryant
5. Tommy La Stella
6. Anthony Rizzo
7. Ben Zobrist
8. AR – SS
9. Albert Almora
10. Ian Happ
11. Jason Heyward
12. Kyle Schwarber

That is 26 players right there, with a roster limit of 25. I even left off guys like Alec Mills, who I think will have every chance to earn a roster spot based on his late season performance. Jame Norwood will have a shot, Justin Hancock as well. We could potentially subtract the club’s shortstop, since he will be finishing off a suspension for domestic abuse as well as whatever the team can do with Chatwood. But Bote will likely need both of those players off the roster for him to be a lock to be on this roster throughout the 2019 season.

Oh, and there’s a growing sense that the club will either give it a good attempt to sign Bryce Harper, and some suspicion that they will add to the bullpen. The Cubs are running out of roster spots and Bote very well could be the odd man out.

The roster is always a pure numbers game and right now those numbers just don’t prove to be in Bote’s favor. Now of course, they could work a trade or two, and Bote can perform at such a level in Spring Training that he forces the Cubs hand. But without playing the what if scenarios, Bote is the 27th man on the roster.

Not making the club out of spring could very well be the best thing for Bote too. There are some glaring holes in his swing, but these are areas which additional time at Triple-A can help. These days, many of these middle of the pack prospects are called up too early as teams aren’t as invested in their development as they are in the high profile guys. Now, I know some will rip me for that statement, especially knowing the Theo Epstein ran organization doesn’t cut corners anywhere, but it is these types that are brought up as a necessity. Bote was hitting .268/.342/.494 in Iowa before being called up. That’s not horrible, it isn’t great either, but it’s not horrible.

Bote is a guy that hits the ball very hard.

There are two areas which will help Bote become an even better hitter in 2018 – launch angle and contact rate. In 2018, Bote’s average launch angle was 3.5 degrees. Look no further than the Boston Red Sox J.D. Martinez. In 2018, he had an average exit velocity of 93 MPH (half a mile slower than Bote) but hit balls at an average exit angle of 10.7 degrees, and if you’re keeping track at home, he had an incredible offensive season. Cubs rental, Daniel Murphy turned his entire career around by focusing on launch angle. In 2015 Murphy had an average launch angle of 11.1, he hit .281/.322/.449. In 2016, he increased the angle to 16.6 and his numbers jumped to .347/.390/.595 and led the league in slugging.

Understand, I’m not saying if Bote adds seven or eight degrees to his launch angle he’ll become Martinez or Murphy, but it will increase his average, and it will increase his slugging percentage. This is absolutely something he should be working on, and a stint in Iowa will allow for more time to do so.

Now his whiffs are another story. You can make small physical or mechanical adjustments that aren’t hard to incorporate to create more loft, it’s a much different task to reduce strikeouts, right Baez? Here’s the thing though, Bote saw a steady diet of sinkers and sliders in 2017 (39.3%) and saw almost as many breaking balls (32.2%) as he did fastballs (36.8%). It is common for young hitters to see a lot of off-speed and breaking pitches, and until he hits them he will continue to see them. Attacking Bote with these pitches helped him expand the zone, resulting in him swinging at 30% of pitches out of the zone. To compound things, he missed 50.7% of those balls. A trip down can potentially help him work on pitch selection and to help contact rates.

Fans have seemed to place Bote into a much better quality player and prospect than what he is. This isn’t a knock on him cause I really like Bote and the way he plays with a chip on his shoulder. But, Bote wasn’t a first round guy like Bryant or Schwarber or Almora or Happ. There’s much more growth needed in his game, and he might not ever be a player of that ilk.

Beginning the season in Iowa might not be heroic. It might not be ideal for some. Heck, he’s likely a better player than four or five guys that will make the roster. But it could be the best option for all if he does.

Jamie Baker

Hi, I’m Jamie and I run this site. I’ve published work on multiple other sites and through that experience I decided to create CHICAGO style SPORTS. We truly aim to speak for the Chicago fan. Additionally, as a member of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) you can be assured that all content you read will be written with incredible integrity.

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