Mike Moustakas left tonight’s game due to right hip tightness, replaced by Asdrubal Cabrera at third base to begin the bottom of the second inning. Moustakas struck out in his lone plate appearance (in the top of the second) and Bobby Nightengale of The Cincinnati Enquirer noted that Moustakas “hopped on his left leg a couple of times” following a game-opening single from Miguel Rojas. This was one of four balls hit in Moustakas’ direction during what ended up as a five-run inning for the Marlins en route to their 6-1 win over the Reds.
The severity of the hip problem isn’t known, though the 2021 season has already been an injury-marred campaign for the veteran infielder. Moustakas has played in only 45 games due to missing more than 11 weeks due to a right heel injury, which eventually necessitated a trip to the 60-day injured list. The result is a .216/.309/.417 slash line and six home runs through 162 plate appearances, and a 92 wRC+ that would count as the Moose’s lowest since the 2014 season. Cabrera was claimed off waivers just yesterday to help the Reds’ infield depth, though he could be in line for quite a bit more playing time if Moustakas’ hip issue results in another IL visit.
More injury updates from around the National League…
- Pablo Lopez was scratched from a scheduled rehab start on Thursday and is now returning to Miami, Marlins manager Don Mattingly told reporters (including MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola). A right rotator cuff strain sent Lopez to the injured list (retroactively) on July 14, yet even with just over a month remaining in the season, Mattingly didn’t commit to the idea of potentially shutting Lopez down. “Nothing more than…just slowing him down, making sure we’re careful with him. Sounded like a minor setback for sure,” Mattingly said. “Probably not minor to Pablo, who’s wanting to get going. But I know the medical staff’s going to be careful with him.” Lopez has posted a 3.03 ERA/3.50 SIERA over 101 innings for Miami this season, with above-average strikeout (27.1%) and walk (6.1%) rates and strong hard-hit ball numbers.
- Willson Contreras is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment within a few days’ time, Cubs manager David Ross told The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney and other reporters. Contreras has been on the 10-day IL since August 12 due to a sprained right knee. One of the few veterans still on the roster following the Cubs’ trade deadline fire sale, Contreras is enjoying another solid season, hitting .226/.333/.417 with 17 homers over 403 plate appearances.
What are the Cubs going to do next season? They completely gutted their roster with the exception of Contreras. Even if they offer him the most money in FA, I’m not sure Contreras would be willing to re-sign in Chicago to be part an apparent, full rebuild. It’s sad to see a major team like Chicago sell off most of their players just to save money. Ricketts should sell the team if he can’t afford to put a competitive product on the field. Cubs fans deserve much better than this.
Said it all.
You’d think the Rockies would have done something like this instead of the Cubs.
What you say about Ricketts is totally true. However Contreras has already made comments that he was hoping the Cubs would extend him, and that he wants to be part of the rebuild.
They traded to get younger players. They weren’t winning with what they had, and the core was not going to suddenly get better. Would you have kept the guys they moved and paid them what they want to prevent them from becoming FAs? Next man up!
Most of their trades were of pending free agents. Not a bad idea to sell those types of players, especially when they’re having the type of season they’ve been having. It’s pretty simple; if this core group of players had played well enough to have the Cubs in playoff contention, I doubt they get traded. Either way, they were hardly traded just to ‘save money.’
Now the Darvish trade; sure, that one was cost-cutting. But in a vacuum, it’s defensible to trade Yu when they did. He had been so inconsistent over the previous several years that the odds of him stringing multiple CY-caliber seasons in a row were slim. And they were right, he hasn’t had a CY caliber season and could be considered overpaid. What isn’t defensible is the return. We will never know, but it seems like they could or should have gotten more than they did. But maybe the rest of the league felt the same way the Cubs did!
To DM: A lot of things you say are correct! The Cub fans are disapointed they did not win more than one WS! Otherwise, it was a nice run. They have to live with it, just like the Dodger fans! How many times have they choked in the Playoffs. Even great teams like them have a hard time winning in the playoffs!
Really simple, they will add some key free agents in the off-season to go with Wisdom, Hoerner, Madrigal, Hendricks, Contreras, Ortega and some good young arms in the bullpen. They will have around 120m to spend, so they can easily be competitive next year.
I hated to see those guys go as much any other Cub fan, but that’s exactly what they needed to do given the circumstances. I tell you what I would not have forgiven, letting all three of them walk at the end of the season without getting anything in return. Time to rebuild. We’ve done this before, and this time I have a feeling there’s a little bit more motivation to field a competitive product. No chance the field of dreams game is going to be happy about hosting is AAA team next year.
Mantooth forgets how the Cubs got all those young talented players who won it all in 2016 apparently.
I really hate how WAR has lowered what a “solid season” is. Hitting near the Mendoza line will never meet my expectations, regardless of walks and power. Hit the ball!
Even that line isn’t great with a .750 ops
For a catcher, it’s pretty good. The average catcher hits .227/.306/.392 with a .304 wOBA and 92 wRC+ this season.
So you’re saying the average catcher is pretty poor offensively? I agree, so I refuse to call a better than poor season “a solid season”.
WAR is a crap stat. Give me production. What wins games? Getting on base and scoring runs wins games. RBI production wins games. OBP is very important. Players who have 25 Hrs with only 50 RBI in late August is sad. I could care less what there OPS is, if they are only hitting solo HRs. Not as sexy, but would take a 2 run single over a solo HR any day.
Part of low RBI is like trout in 2012, sometimes no one gets on in front of you and you still are producing
Contreras has only 162 plate appearances with men on base and less than 100 with RISP. Hasn’t had too many RBI chances to begin with.
Moose=bust
exactly….Moose garnered multiple one year contracts around 8 million a year and then Cincy suddenly thinks he is a 54 million dollar player?
Pretty safe to say he’s out for the season. Just can’t stay off the IL.
Good luck Moose! You are missed in Milwaukee and KC!
IMHO and as much as I don’t get along with White Sox Fan, he is correct when he writes that Baez, Bryant and Rizzo should had been traded a a couple of years back. That Cubs teams were not getting any better. After 2016-2017 they weren’t playing to their capabilities. Rizzo wasn’t playing as he is with the Yankees. The same with Bryant with the Giants. Baez has being a head case which the league pitchers have figured him out. Maybe Ross’hiring wasn’t the best choice, he wasn’t getting the best from his chums. Also, those guys were to ask for a ton in FA so it was best to receive anything which may be good or not in return. Maybe they should had been traded in the 2019-2020 off season to receive a better return, but that season wasn’t so good for those guys. Darvish trade was done in the correct time, no matter or not it was for a pay cut, but return should had been a better one, maybe if Davies wasn’t involved in that trade, but Cubs needed another passable MLB pitcher in that trade to keep contention hopes in that return package. It is time to write a new book/chapter which may be a boost or a bust. Contreras comments regarding their lack of effort was totally true.
Marlins need to shut down Pablo Lopez. Come back next Spring with both Lopez and Sixto Sanchez healthy to go along with Sandy Alcantara, Trevor Rogers, Eliezer Hernandez and Edward Cabrera, etc.