At the end of the day you need your star players to step up and lead the team through tough times, which has not happened with the Chicago Cubs for the past couple months. The Cubs have been a .500 club since the middle of June and the offense has been frustratingly bad since the All-Star break. The big names aren’t producing, but it also doesn’t help that guys who were added as insurance have been pretty close to worthless for the Cubs yet again.
Veteran Jon Berti is the latest name among a growing list of players the Cubs have brought in to be depth options off the bench that have finished their time on the team with negative value. Berti was designated for assignment on Tuesday as the Cubs made room on the active roster for Miguel Amaya.
The 35-year-old played in a total of 53 games this year and slashed .210/.262/.232, with no home runs, 12 runs scored, two RBI and 11 stolen bases. Berti was worth -0.4 fWAR with the Cubs. Even with a relatively small salary of $2 million, that’s an awful investment by Jed Hoyer and the Cubs.
Berti was supposed to provide some back up at third base this year in case rookie Matt Shaw struggled. And guess what, Shaw did and was sent down to Triple-A in mid-April. Berti was so bad while he filled in that he pretty much became a ghost on the roster once the calendar flipped to June. In the month of May, Berti was 3-for-29, at the plate. After that Craig Counsell rarely used Berti, limiting the veteran player to 25 plate appearances from June through Aug. 10.
At the end of July, the Cubs also designated Vidal Brujan for assignment. He was brought in via trade from the Miami Marlins in the offseason and Brujan put up a -0.2 fWAR in 36 games with the Cubs, hitting .222/.234/.289, in 47 plate appearances.
The best bench bat Hoyer acquired this past offseason has been Justin Turner, who has gotten red-hot against left-handed pitching, but is otherwise having an underwhelming year overall with a 77 wRC+. Yet, Turner does have an .822 OPS against lefties, which has at least given the Cubs something positive off the bench.
Not saying that finding adequate bench pieces is easy, but Hoyer’s miss rate has been brutal dating back to 2023.
