On Monday the Chicago Cubs acquired center fielder Dexter Fowler from the Houston Astros in a move many believed was to make room for prospect third baseman Kris Bryant. However, there is another reason the team may have made the trade.
The deal for Fowler essentially displaced Arismendy Alcantara, who spent 70 games with the Cubs in 2014 at second base and center field. He was moved to the outfield on a more permanent basis when prospect infielder Javier Baez was called up to the roster in early August. Baez homered in his first major league at-bat, but what seemed to be tremendously promising soon became an unsettling reality.
In 52 games the 22-year-old Baez slashed .169/.227/.324 with nine home runs, 20 RBIs, five stolen bases and a whopping 95 strikeouts in just 229 plate appearances. The team was confident they could use the offseason to tweak some mechanics in his swing and help him improve his patience at the plate, especially during pitcher's counts. According to FOX Sports' Jon Morosi, it looks as if there has been little-to-no improvement in that department for Baez, as he's struggled during winter ball in Puerto Rico.
"Baez struck out 21 times in 43 at-bats for Santurce during the Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente regular season, and his performance has regressed further in the playoffs. Through two games of the Puerto Rican championship series, Baez is 0 for 9 with six strikeouts and has been dropped from second to seventh in the batting order. He also committed two throwing errors in Game 1 and a fielding error in Game 2."
With these numbers and lack of improvement, there remains a good possibility Baez starts the season at Triple-A Iowa, where he slashed .260/.323/.510 with 23 home runs, 80 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and 130 strikeouts in 104 games (434 plate appearances) before being called up in August. Although he'll have a chance to compete for the starting job at second base, the fact that he's struggling against what's considered Triple-A-caliber pitching in Puerto Rico can allow us to deduce he won't do too well against MLB pitching.
Baez's struggles perhaps provide some more clarity for the Fowler trade. Following the deal, general manager Jed Hoyer told reporters that Alcantara, who was the team's center fielder for most of the second half of 2014, will "move around the field," indicating he would be used as some sort of utility player for manager Joe Maddon. However, Alcantara has been said to be the team's leadoff hitter of the future and possesses a lot of upside despite slashing .205/.254/.367 with 93 strikeouts in 300 plate appearances in those 70 games. In fact, he's been improving during winter ball in the Dominican Republic and has batted .324/.395/.544 with four home runs, eight RBIs and three stolen bases in 19 games.
With Alcantara's improvement and Baez's struggles, was the Fowler trade a move to shift Alcantara over to second base for the 2015 season while the team allows Baez to develop a little bit more? We'll never really know, but it's certainly a possibility, because Fowler will likely hit free agency after 2015 once he and the Cubs work out a deal to avoid arbitration. By 2016, Fowler will probably be gone, Baez may be ready to assume a full-time role with the Cubs and Alcantara can move back to center field.
Once spring training begins there will be more insight in terms of how Chicago will handle Baez's development and where Alcantara will be playing.