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Remember when Mark Zagunis was on the Opening Day roster, played some for the first couple weeks and was then buried on the bench for a month before the Cubs sent him back to Triple-A? Well, the Cubs currently have two players who are essentially providing nothing for the team now too.
First, there’s Daniel Descalso, who was the big free agent veteran presence for the Cubs and right now he only has one more hit in June than me. He’s been awful since May, slashing .187/.287/.281, overall this year.
Joe Maddon finally benched him this month, reducing Descalso to only 10 at-bats in June.
Then, there’s Addison Russell. Here’s the injury the Cubs are just ignoring and they’re making the team worse for it. Strictly talking about his on-field performance, Russell got hot for a week and after going 2-for-4 on June 1 against the Cardinals he was batting .288 with a .344 OBP and .508 slugging % in 59 at-bats.
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But since that two-hit game in St. Louis, Russell is 4-for-30, and guess what, he has another hand injury.
Russell injured his hand June 4 against the Rockies on a slide. He didn’t start for the next six games and came in once as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement on June 8. So for a week, the Cubs were basically playing with 24 players on the roster.
Theo Epstein was on 670 The Score Thursday morning and said Russell is dealing with a thumb bruise. It’s been almost three weeks since he got hurt. He didn’t play for almost a whole week and when he has he’s been bad.
For some reason the Cubs are just ignoring the injury, making the roster worse and having Russell play through it.
A pretty simple solution to place Russell on the injured list, but nope.
So, the Cubs have not just one, but two players on the current 25-man roster who have been useless at the plate this month.
And I know the name that immediately pops up is Ian Happ, but he’s not really an option at second base, plus the Cubs probably don’t want to bring him up until they know he can get consistent at-bats. But the Cubs do have options in the minors.
Robel Garcia has 17 home runs in the minors this season, including 11 in 38 games with the Iowa Cubs. Since getting promoted to Triple-A, Garcia is slashing .277/.346/.577.
But there’s more!
No on Robel Garcia? How about Phillip Evans!
If Nico Hoerner wouldn’t have gotten injured, he would probably be an option too.
But for now, the Cubs aren’t putting Russell on the IL and I doubt they do anything with Descalso. Two roster spots doing nothing. I don’t get it, Theo.
