So this is the summer of Bryce Harper, and the year he finally joins his old chum, Kris Bryant on the Chicago Cubs. I mean, this has been the worst kept secret for a couple of years now, the game night’s at each other’s houses, Harper naming his dog Wrigley, the chumming up with Bryant’s bromance hero Anthony Rizzo at the All-Star game. Then several betting sites naming the Cubs as the odds-on favorite to sign the former Washington Nationals slugger.
Yesterday we mentioned how Mark Gonzalez of the Tribune said Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber are likely to be moved this offseason, which would open a spot for Harper in the 2019 Cubs outfield. But what if that’s not the move the Cubs brass is looking at? What if there’s another free agent star the Cubs want to bring in? What if that guy is already friends with someone on the Cubs, but that friend is Albert Almora Jr and not Bryant? What if that player is Manny Machado?
There are a lot of Cubs fans that prefer Machado anyway. They cite his more predictable offensive production, and more versatility and ability to stay on the baseball field more often. They will also point to the fact that the Cubs current shortstop has likely played his last game in Chicago, and potentially in the big leagues altogether.
But let me try and pass this by you, just as a thought, which makes much more sense than what has previously been talked about.
What if the Cubs kept Javier Baez at shortstop, but signed Machado to play third base? This would give the Cubs Gold Glove caliber left side of the infield, while then moving Kris Bryant to left. If you remember, Machado had been considered the best defensive third baseman in baseball and was compared to some of the best to ever play the position (defensively). This would, of course, assume the team trades Schwarber, or Happ, or both, and opens left to Bryant.
This would potentially move David Bote to second base, his natural position, and creating a solid and complete infield defense.
But this does ask the Cubs to rely too heavily on a player that took a hard crash offensively after his late-game heroics. While defensively this team would be very sound, and they would see the increased offensive production from having 150+ games from Bryant, and adding Machado and his potential 30 home runs, they would have a questionable offensive position at second (assuming there was no improvement from 2018 to 2019 from Bote). They still have Ben Zobrist, but soon he will be on borrowed time.
This is why I also suggest the Cubs look to adding a second baseman on the market. The guy that jumps off the page to me is, DJ LeMahieu.
D.J. doesn’t possess a ton of power, but he does offer his teams a professional at-bat and plays a sound defensive second base. This is a guy that has been a two-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner, and won a batting title when he hit .348 in 2016.
Now one thing you do fear is home/away splits with anyone from Colorado, and LeMahieu is no different. His career splits away from Colorado are .264/.311/.362 – which are not very good. There is something to be said for performance on the road just being harder, going town to town, flying, hotels, bus rides, stricter schedules, etc., but I would keep performance away from Coors in the back of my head.
Regardless, how about this for a batting order:
- Albert Almora CF
- Kris Bryant LF
- Anthony Rizzo 1B
- Manny Machado 3B
- Javier Baez SS
- Willson Contreras C
- D.J. LeMahieu 2B
- Jason Heyward RF
This is all speculation, and I will certainly have several more of these sorts of articles in the near future. We aren’t even in the offseason yet and there is a LOT to talk about. Can’t wait to see what shakes out in the months ahead.
Let us know what you think can happen below!
