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So this was from four days ago and although it’s kind of old “news” by now I couldn’t let it pass me by without discussing it because we all know you’ve been waiting for my opinion and I’m here to please you.
Last week Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune wrote a quick “Who’s likely to return and who’s likely to depart,” article talking about the Cubs. The biggest piece of information, or at least the most surprising opinion, because really that’s all this was, Mark’s opinion, was that he thinks Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber are likely to depart in the offseason.
Big fucking deal, right? Gonzales is a respected reporter, who’s been on the Cubs beat for several years. So, you know, his opinion carries some weight. But again, it’s important to point out that this was solely based on opinion. But still, Kyle Schwarber likely to depart? There must be a pretty good explanation as to why Gonzales believes that to be the case.
Let’s see what Gonzales wrote via the Chicago Tribune.
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Arbitration eligible. Power makes him attractive to AL teams.
…
That’s literally it. I mean, all the explanations were a sentence long, but you’d expect something deeper when it comes to players you think are going to be dealt away.
The point is that as much as Theo Epstein put several young position players on notice during his 71-minute press conference last week, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Schwarber will return in 2019, unless a team absolutely blows the Cubs away with a trade offer.
I mean, Epstein specifically said during his press conference how the Cubs offense broke and lamented the fact that they stopped hitting for power and stopped walking in the second half. And yes that includes Schwarber, who was bad just like almost every other player on the Cubs after the all-star break, but he’s proven to do two things during his young career: hit home runs and draw walks.
So yeah, with all due respect to Mark Gonzales, I’m going to that article with a grain of salt, when you have Kyle Schwarber listed as “likely to depart” and Albert Almora Jr. under the “likely to return” category.
Since making his MLB debut on June 16, 2015, Kyle Schwarber has 72 home runs and 174 walks. Both rank 4th on the Cubs.
Kyle Schwarber only had 4 at-bats in 2016.
Kyle Schwarber is going to be with the Cubs.
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) October 8, 2018
And again it’s not that Schwarber is an untouchable, but c’mon, give me something better than his power is attractive to AL teams. You know who else finds Schwarber’s power very attractive? Theo Epstein and the Cubs.
