Cubs outfielder Carlos Gonzalez cleared waivers and elected free agency after being designated for assignment last week, manager Joe Maddon told reporters today (Twitter link via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune).
Gonzalez, 33, joined the Cubs on his second minor league deal of the season in late May and was selected to the Major League roster just days later. Unfortuately, CarGo’s time in Chicago didn’t go much better than his brief stint in Cleveland. After hitting .210/.282/.276 through 117 plate appearances with the Indians, Gonzalez batted only .175/.306/.300 in 49 plate appearances with the Cubs. He’s punched out in 31.3 percent of his plate appearances between the two teams.
While there’s plenty of name value attached to Gonzalez, a three-time All-Star and former MVP candidate, it’s been a few years since he delivered particularly strong offense. Dating back to 2017, Gonzalez has batted .260/.328/.423 (86 OPS+) and seen his power diminish. He did enjoy a strong all-around year in 2016 and crack 40 homers in 2015, but the combined .285/.337/.522 line he put together in those two seasons is well in the rear-view mirror at this point. While another club could very well look to roll the dice on a player with such a strong track record, it seems likely that he’ll have to settle for a third minor league deal.
This guy is toast. He used to hit .330 with 40 home runs and had gold glove caliber center field defense. He is about the same age as Josh Donaldson and years younger than Nick Markakis. Why is he sooo much worse than either of them? It is pretty sad.
Because they don’t play at Coors.
Toast? Once he gets with that ace coaching staff in Chicago he’ll be right back to his old self.
I can’t tell if your being sarcastic or not. Regardless, in this exact post the subject is about him electing free agency and leaving Chicago. It’s highly unlikely he ever plays for Chicago again unless he goes to the White Sox. The chances of him even joining the White Sox seems relatively slim.
No, the Cubbies staff will set him straight… 😉
How??! He’s not even with the Cubs anymore? I guess you are just messing me and playing the role of every uninformed Cubs fan as a joke. Some Mets fans I knew used to do the same thing. One of my best friends growing up was a Mets fan and used to literally always say the exact same thing. “My Mets are gonna turn him around.” I was always saying “Of all the teams in Major League Baseball to turn a highly paid bad player around, why would it ever be the Mets? The Mets take good players and make them bad.” Then I would run down a list to prove my point. I always felt bad after doing it because he looked very sad afterwards. He was a true Mets fan (as I would be if I were born in Queens to a family of die hard Mets fans) and it was always like he thought he had a team that was terrible the year before but thought they were gonna get really good and then realized they were just gonna get worse. The Wilpons will do that to their teams fans. Over and over again.
He’s not with the Cubbies anymore??? Just one month ago there were two Cub geniuses that were going to school everyone on how brilliant a move it was going to be to sign him and have their 1st rate staff get him back on track. Say it isn’t so?
Haha! I knew it!! Your my kinda people. A surprisingly large number of both Cubs fans and Mets fans live in some kind of fantasy world. Mets fans think if they overpay for a washed up player it means that player will be forced to perform better. A lot of Cubs fans live in a fantasy world that leads them to believe if they overpay for a declining player that other teams won’t realize how bad the player has become and thus will still be willing to trade top prospects to acquire said player. In fact… If the Cubs were smart they would just unload their over paid garbage (i.e. Darvish and Heyward (not pure garbage but paid like he should be a superstar) to the Mets. Fred Wilpon would encourage it and Brodie Van Wagonen would hype it up so much in the NY Post that the Mets fans would love it. Then when the Mets fail, it will just be par for the course with Mets fans and they will just keep waiting “for next year” like they always do. Man… someone should pay me for these ideas. Theo Epstein should pay me. It would help his club dramatically and between the Wilpons and BVW it actually might work.
Sarcasm?
He was a serviceable 4th OF type player in 2018 but he just fell apart this year. His splits were pretty massive when he was in his prime at Coors.
Check his birth certificate, is he really 38?
Carlos swing was always far too long. It worked when he was younger and the “fast twitch” muscles and ability was still there. He might could still be serviceable if he could cut down the swing, but as the saying goes, “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks”.
Great career, but it is over.
Interesting observation. Hoping he’s able to cut down his swing.
Couldn’t agree more with this assessment. His long swing with many moving parts contributed to streakiness his whole career but now it’s something he can’t overcome. It’s too bad because there are many players his same age and older still producing who don’t have half his talent or track record
sad to see what’s happened to him. watched him in cleveland earlier this year and looks like more of the same in chicago.. no power or extra base hits anymore
I really don’t know why any team was willing to give him a shot this year after his production dropped off so dramatically in his last few years with the Rockies. If you can’t produce at Coors, where can you produce?
this is true
Cargo needs to choose retirement.
His nickname should now be CarNova.
Uh oh. Looks like the Giants will give their 138th OF tryout before the all star break.
No. this tired joke does not apply whatsoever. Look at all the outfielders the Giants have claimed, keeping some, and waiving, or releasing the others. They’ve all been young, with little MLB experience. Clearly Zaidi was and will probably continue to be, searching for the diamond in the rough. Other than Pillar, Maybin was the only veteran that the Giants looked at, and he was signed and let go before ST. Everybody knows what CarGo is. He isn’t young and he’s no diamond in the rough. Austin. Yastrzemski, Dickerson, Slater Duggar, and even Pillar are better options than CarGo.
That would happen if Bobby Evans was still GM ♂️
Time to retire the Bobby Evans comments.
He’s too young for the Giants
Another Giants comment that needs to be retired.
I can see the Phillies rolling the dice on him
He’s 39
The A’s still never shoulda traded him to the Rockies way back when
Never understood signing him in the first place. If was any good teams would have been beating down his door. Oh well.