He has a negative WAR since joining the Cubs, so it's been both offense and defense.
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Pretty impressive job by him to have a little bit of a career bounce back season. And impressive job by the Cubs FO and Hottovy to turn him into what he's become.
And yeah, Castro has been a dud but assuming Tucker and Suzuki are back by the postseason, it's not like he's gonna be counted on for much more than a pinch hit/run role. I'm sure Cubs were hoping for more but at the very least he's gotten multiple guys some days off with his positional versatility and gotten us through a pretty unlucky injury stretch with Tucker, Suzuki, and Caissie all going down at the same time
sorry I don't get into the numbers like some of you people do. It just gets old bashing players at times for them not living up to someone's expectations.
LOL, what part of Castro's 515 OPS do you find particularly impressive? You do realize the Cubs are paying him roughly $2.5MM of his $6.4MM 2025 salary for these putrid results--and they traded away two prospects, one of whom has at least some measure of upside, for this performance.
With the Cubs, dude HAS failed roughly 9 out of 10 times. He's weapons-grade awful. Sit his butt on the bench with a sign around his neck, "Use Only in Case of Emergency." I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy. At baseball, with the Cubs, he bad.
Horton has been a pleasant surprise this season and has progressed faster than any would of imagined. Thought he maybe would have to work out of the bullpen first but he's probably the top pitcher in the rotation right now with the way he's been pitching even over Shota IMO. Guessing Shota gets Game 1 of a playoff series regardless but Horton is making a case for it. Wild card round is a best of 3 series so he and Shota have to be your top 2 guys and if there is a game 3 not sure who you go with. Boyd has struggled a bit lately and my guess that may be due to some fatigue since he hasn't pitched this many innings in a season since 2019. Taillon has been pretty good in his 4 starts in August and September when he has been healthy too so could go with either of those guys then if Soroka can prove he is healthy and effective you go with him and Rea out of the bullpen as your multi-innings guys to bridge it to the late inning relievers.
Regarding some of the other topics above, yes Castro has been a disappointment but at the trade deadline the Cubs likely were not the only team interested in him and was playing well at the time so no one could have predicted he's fall off a cliff. I do think they should be giving Alcantara some of his starts in the OF though as there is more potential there for some offense. Castro has been hitting .157 over his past 30 games now so a late inning substitution should be his role at this point.
Keller has been a stud in the bullpen for a guy invited to spring training on a non-roster deal. He's going to get paid this offseason and I hope the Cubs make an attempt to keep him here. Kittredge has a $9 mil club option that I think they should pick up too. I mean how much did they spend between Pressly and Braiser this year that was wasted money? Rea club option at $6 mil next year is another no-brainer too IMO.
Regarding some of the other topics above, yes Castro has been a disappointment but at the trade deadline the Cubs likely were not the only team interested in him and was playing well at the time so no one could have predicted he's fall off a cliff. I do think they should be giving Alcantara some of his starts in the OF though as there is more potential there for some offense. Castro has been hitting .157 over his past 30 games now so a late inning substitution should be his role at this point.
Keller has been a stud in the bullpen for a guy invited to spring training on a non-roster deal. He's going to get paid this offseason and I hope the Cubs make an attempt to keep him here. Kittredge has a $9 mil club option that I think they should pick up too. I mean how much did they spend between Pressly and Braiser this year that was wasted money? Rea club option at $6 mil next year is another no-brainer too IMO.
I don't know how you don't start Horton game one at this point. Shota seems to have a bad habit of taking a few innings to settle in. Can't afford that game 1 of a wildcard series.
I think he gets Game 2. You've got break up the lefties against San Diego.
Shota-Horton-Boyd (piggybacked with Taillon)
It's Counsell so you never know, he could do something crazy like not even pitch him in the rotation in the WC series because he's a rookie but I don't think he's that stupid. If I was whoever we play in the WC and I have a couple good lefties in my rotation I pitch them games 1 and 2 and see if Counsell will sit Busch who is heating up right now at a good time of the season. I would hope Counsell just puts his best lineups out there in a 3 game series regardless of who is on the mound barring that we are healthy and have everyone available. Starting to worry if Tucker is going to be ready to go and if he's not then you gotta got with Mo at DH and take your lumps in the OF with Suzuki.
He didn’t suck before he got here based on your list of failures maybe it’s more about us than them.
Yeah I read into it more last night...I assumed -WAR meant you had negatives in both offense and defense.
yes you are right he is terrible don't know why the Cubs Front Office didn't call you about this trade. there do you feel better now that I have said you are a very knowledgeable person on everything. You also seem butthurt like did one of these players take your spot on the roster?
Hoerner is my favorite player on this team. Just a damn good ball player.
Jesse Rogers on the pregame said Boyd starts game one and there is no other option. I don’t think he’s in our top three over the last month.
Are you surprised? He was playing out of his mind in the first half of this season.
