Bleacher Bums Forum

What are you suggesting the Cubs would do with their current 2B?

There's chatter that multiple teams are interested in Nico, and he is an impending FA we're almost certainly not re-signing. Love the guy but cashing him in now at peak value and replacing him with Bichette isn't a terrible option. Alternatively, if Bichette is willing to play 2B maybe he's willing to play 3B for a year?

Of course all this is contingent on the Cubs being willing to sign Bichete. Which, well...

You can talk all you want about flexibility but that's just spin, really. No other MLB clubs has fewer than 35 slots filled (as of a week ago). The Cubs left a bunch of guys unprotected and still got no one claimed. They have several guys they did put on the 40 who would certainly have gone unclaimed. They have a boatload of players hitting FA after '26 unlikely to be re-signed. At this point the depth of talent in the organization - from the front office down - is terrifyingly inadequate.

Cubs are thin in pitching prospects. Everybody knows that.

But not too concerned elsewhere. 1B, SS, 3B have lots of years of control. Amaya and maybe Ballesteros at C.  PCA and a few very interesting OF prospects from 2025 draft, plus Caissie and Alcantara.

And if Horton stays healthy and Wiggins makes the jump impressively in 2026 and Cubs get that quality SP this off-season for multiple years, SP will be fine. Pitching outlook can change quickly. That’s baseball.

As to Hoerner, Happ, Suzuki, Kelly after 2026—you think you have a handle as to “won’t be back.” No you don’t. Remains to be seen.

As far as 40-man roster is concerned, generally not a lot of correlation between (a) quality of top prospects and (b) the 40-man roster. Mariners and Dodgers widely considered as having best overall prospects right now. Yet, Mariners have zero of their BA 2026 Top 10 prospects on their 40 man and Dodgers have just one.

Cubs will have close to 40 come spring training and it won’t mean much of anything—one way or the other—regarding “depth of talent” in the organization. You can judge that thru other means, not so much via the 40.

Any interest in Kazuma Okamoto? 

Questions for Japanese baseball followers.

1.  Could he play some LF/RF, or is he just too slow and not athletic to really get used there?  He's played a little outfield, but not much. 

2.  Is he a good enough prospect that he'll get guaranteed-starter roles from other teams?  With only "versatility" and "earn-AB's" roles in mind, might Cubs be off his radar? 

3.  Will Okamoto be too expensive to fit as second ticket after the starting pitcher?  I'd love Imai-plus-Bregman, add two good starters FA winter.  But assuming that's too pricey for Hoyer/Ricketts, would Imai-plus-Okamoto be able to both fit?  Or Gallen-Okamoto, or whatever? 

My interest: *IF* Okamoto is actually hypothetically good enough to hit and to earn AB's, I think he could earn a LOT of AB's for Cubs.  I'm much more interested in him for his potential hitting than in Willi Castro, who's hitting is so limited.  Roles Okamoto could perhaps have, this year, and how "utility" could be covered even if his personal defense is limited:

a.  3B.  *IF* he hits and Shaw struggles, might he start some games there?

b.  Primary DH?  Hopefully Moises and Caissie do great, but possible that Okamoto might flat-out beat them both out? 

c.  Platoon DH/1B.  Caissie is strictly a platoon player, and not sure for Moises this young.  Think Okamoto might get regular starts against LHP at DH, and some 1B starts also, even in absence of any injury. 

d.  2B/SS injury.  Okamoto can't play those.  But if Shaw can play 2B, Okamoto can indirectly replace.

e.  1B injury.  (perish that thought!)

f.  LF/OF injury.  Maybe Okamoto is anti-awful OK himself, and could play corner?  But even assuming otherwise, Caissie is solid defensively.  Caissie could play LF/RF and Okamoto could then pick up Caissie's DH AB's, in case of Happ/Seiya injuries. 

So, kinda seems to me that Shaw and Hoerner provide infield flexibility defensively, Caissie OF.  So a roster with Okamoto could indirectly have good depth/flexibility/injury-coverage.  That is, *IF* Okamoto and Caissie can hypothetically hit, where you like having them in lineup. 

5.  Future:  Happ is expiring.  What if Okamoto hits quite well, and is actually not bad in LF?  He and Caissie might provide some pretty strong post-Happ options? 

The above analysis comps him to Suzuki.  Probably he won't be as good, obviously; but even a Seiya-lite would be a way better bench addition that the Castro/Berti/Brujan auto-outs from last year.  Assuming we don't have $$ for both a good FA pitcher AND Bregman, I'm wondering if Okamoto might be a little more affrordable, and might end up being a useful second signing after Imai/Gallen/King/Suarez/Framber? 


Go with Imai-Okamoto, and key in with our second-level Japanese talent flow?   

There are basically two Jed FA signings, "Who the hell is that" and "Oh, didn't he used to be good". This checks the first box.

At least he's cheaper than Mancini and Turner. Anything to avoid giving Long a shot, I guess.

It was a lot of years ago, and modest sample size, but in Austin's scattered mlb AB's pre-covid, he had huge splits.  Might hypothetically have very small role, but might be way better than Justin Turner for a lot less cash. 
.884 OPS vs LHP, .638 vs RHP. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=austity01&year=Career&t=b

Power is real, but a 36.9% K-rate when he was in the majors speaks for itself. Went down a lot in Japan, but we'll see if that's a matter of his development or facing less premium velocity.

At least he's cheaper than Mancini and Turner. Anything to avoid giving Long a shot, I guess.

Seems like Long is a good candidate for use in a trade?