The Cubs have activated Jason Heyward from the IL, per a team announcement. In a corresponding move, Greg Deichmann has been optioned to Triple-A. This is the inverse of the roster move from 10 days ago, when Deichmann was called up as Heyward went onto the IL.
This was the first major league action for Deichmann, who just joined the Cubs in the Andrew Chafin trade. He got into seven games and made 23 plate appearances, hitting .174. At Triple-A this year, he has a slash line of .291/.425/.439, for a wRC+ of 124.
Heyward is now one of the few household names remaining after the Cubs’ deadline fire sale. Along with Kyle Hendricks and David Bote, he’s one of just three players on the team with a guaranteed contract for next season. He’ll make $22MM in 2022 and 2023 as he finishes out the eight-year contract he signed prior to the 2016 season. After an excellent 2020 campaign, he’s crashed back to earth this year, with a slash line of .198/.271/.322, a wRC+ of 63.
Millions of Cubs fans groan at this news. Personally, I wish he could have stayed on the injured list for the next two plus seasons.
The cubs just need to call up Brennan Davis already. Deichmann might be good in due time, but Davis is more than ready right now. He should’ve been called up when Joc Pederson was traded.
In theory, yes. Reality says to not start his clock yet.
Exactly jims, you don’t start Davis’ clock at 21 years of age. He isn’t ready yet, and doesn’t even have an AB yet at AAA ball.
Nico had less than 90ABs in Double A in ’19. He’s fit in quite well. He was 22 when he debuted. Some said he wasn’t ready.
Nico hasn’t exactly been storming the baseball world to this point.
He’s also been hurt. So there’s that. He was far from ready. He has been pretty good when healthy. Davis’ showing at the Future’s Gmae showed he’s ready.
I do see your point don’t start his clock until opening day 2022. He should be the everyday CF.
Cubs were also competing for a division title and Cubs had injuries up the middle was when Nico got called up. Totally different circumstances.
He also had 3 years at Stanford under his belt.
Yeah true. If you call up Davis you at least give cub fans something to cheer about. They’ve lost 11 straight for the 2nd time this season. I’m not even sure the D’Backs did that this year yet. They don’t even have 40 wins yet.
No way. First year in AA and still has a 29% strikeout rate. Absolutely ZERO reason to start his clock in a lost season. No need to bring him up next year either. Let him progress.
How does a guy this talented, who draws walks and rarely strikes out (by modern standards), stink so badly?
Because he has the longest swing in the history of baseball and grounds out to the right side or pops out in 96.9% of his at bats.
In a very short sample size, Deichmann has been the biggest disappointment of the players that Hoyer had acquired at the deadline. I see his minor league stats are decent, but he looked to be of absolutely no help at the MLB level. I would have expected more for Chafin.
Say it with me slowly…sample. Size.
Twenty-three plate appearances??? Jeez, people talk about how impatient this generation is, I guess this is further verification.
Mike Trout was no great shakes his first time in the majors. I’m not saying Deichmann or anyone else will be the next Mike Trout, but a little patience would be justifiable.
He had 23 plate appearances. I know you acknowledged that in your post and all but you CLEARLY don’t give it enough wait. There isn’t much you can make a solid assessment about with just 23 PA’s to go on.
They’re bad, they’ve been bad before and they’ll be bad again. They’re the Cubs!
You could insert any team name in sports history at the end of your comment and it would still be true.
No mostly it pertains to the cubs. Years and years of losing and right back at it now.
I thought they finally got rid of Heyward
Hard to shed 40+ mil when you have a full no trade and 10/5 rights. On top of no one wanting you. Best case it’d be bad contract for bad contracts. Basically it’d have to be Wil Myers for Heyward and not even the cubs would do that.
Myers contract is not good, but he still hits some and his deal ends nest year, while heyward’s goes until 2023.
heyward’s entire career was built upon hype, just like that of BJ Upton which gullible GM’s then bid/fell over themselves when they hit FA. Thought it funny then and funny now why fans who watch these guys, who really never were that consistent, or good get hyped up the way they do.
I put Heyward down as one of the worst the contracts given last half dozen years and was easy to see coming.
MLB needs a formal buyout system
Try getting the MLBPA to agree to that one.
I dont think it’s impossible, it would just have to hinge on making sure no guranteed money is taken away. we’re talking like the Bonilla scenario, but the can isnt kicked as far down the road. ultimately, the goal would be to help spread out the luc charge of a massive deal and prevent a single bad deal from ruining a team’s finances. the league as a whole has a vested interest in having this happen, and teams may be willing to spend more knowing they have this failsafe available to them. if done right, everyone wins.
DarkSide – “if done right” is the problem. This is MLB and the MLBPA we’re talking about. It almost certainly would not be done right.
They do. Pay him and cut him
Ah yes, the unending criticism of Jason Heyward. He was offered a huge contract (actually offered *more* by the cards, who he turned down) and accepted it–like any of you yahoos would not do the same! Yes, it paid him too much, and yes he has overall been a major disappointment at the plate. BUT…do the Cubs win the world series without him? (Beyond the tangibles, folks, as baseball is more than ops, war, etc.) Might it have been worth all that money for a world series title? I would vote yes.
What is also funny? The same people on this db who complain about the Cubs not spending like to make fun of them spending too much on someone like Heyward. Haters gonna hate, I guess.
Do you really think that Heyward was the difference-maker for the 2016 Cubs? He provided almost no value for the team that year and hit like complete garbage in the playoffs. You’re right that it’s not Heyward’s fault he was offered so much money, but it’s still one of the most regrettable signings for an MLB team in recent history.
Really? It’s “funny” to you that people who want the Cubs to spend more money also want them to spend it wisely? Gosh, I thought people calling for Ricketts to spend just meant to give Sogard $25 million!
Nobody is blaming Heyward for taking the deal, but he’s hopeless at this point.. He just replaced a guy who was batting .174–and he’s also below the Mendoza line. At this point I’d rather give Heyward’s ABs to Deichmann and hope he figures it out enough to be some part of a future Cubs team. But of course he’s owed too much money for that, so he’ll be out there for at least the next year and a half out of two.
I know about his whole pep talk in Game 7, and I’m sure he was a big club house influence, but that only goes so far. When you have a sub-70 wRC+ and .104 BA in the post season, any intangable really isn’t going to help.
You guys always bank on but yeah we at least won A World Series. For Gods sake it took em 113 years. The odds had to be with them or any other sports teams after that period of time. Quite frankly no one cares that they finally won one measly title. According to most cub fans they were going to win title after title. They just weren’t that good.
The real question is when will Ricketts be optioned and someone who can properly run an organization be called up?
I read it wrong and thought ‘Wow, Cubs fans must be thrilled,’
For the rest of this year I’d put Heyward in right field and make him play every inning of every game. He’ll help secure a better draft position.
Honestly I love this. I’d be like we’re paying you all this money at least we will get your time. His stats are the only thing that will be affected. We wouldn’t win much either way.
I don’t discredit his professionalism or leadership by the way.
And man it would have been awesome if they would have done that to Jake. Be like hey David, we are going to release him after the game have him complete it no matter how bad it gets and save the bullpen.
The Heyward situation should teach Cubs management you do not sign mulmulti year contracts! How do you justify paying a player 22million, for currently hitting 198!
Seemed like they could have kept Heyward out through the end of the season to get a look at any of their minor league outfielders. This guy and someone else would at least be worth looking at. Still don’t know why they didn’t claim the OF from the Sox, Gonzalez. He would have at least had some upside and options remaining. Or ask for Rutherford in the Kimbrel trade. I like Madrigal and Heuer but they could have asked and received at least one more player with moderate upside.
I know the Heyward signing is regretable. But I think it’s worth giving some context to when he signed the contract. The three years prior, he hit .274/.353/.414 with a .339 wOBA, and 116 wRC+. led all outfielders in DRS, had the highest UZR/150, and the only other outfielders that had a higher fWAR were Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Bautista, Bryce Harper, and Carlos Gonzalez. Three of those guys won at least 1 MVP, and Bautista finished top 10 in voting twice. The Cubs signed him going into his age-26 season and through his age 33-season, which isn’t terribly old. I’m not saying that the contract isn’t awful, but his decline has been so sudden and quick. I don’t think this is a Chris Davis-like situation, who was already 30 and struggled a ton with strikeouts, and limited to just 1B.
He’s a streaky guy, too. He figures it out for a while and he hits like he did in 2020. If he can get a 60 game stretch like that next year, he ends up being an average player for an entire season.
You make some solid points which I don’t disagree with. A reasonable person can’t fault the front office too much for this deal but I do believe it hurt their chances of winning more than one title after that large scale rebuild. After the Cubs won it in 2016 a year before I expected their rise to power I figured the Cubs would be a WS contender if not favorite through this year at least but spending of minor league talent and money caused them to become mediocre looking from the outside in rather quickly. Obviously Epstein/Hoyer would love to have had that money available when Ricketts clamped down on spending but that’s just the nature of signing free agent deals like that