Nico Hoerner hasn’t played since Monday, but before Sunday’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates Cubs manager Craig Counsell said that the gold glove second baseman AND Dansby Swanson were expected to return on Tuesday following Monday’s day off. Well, the Cubs are now reportedly going to call up infield prospect Luis Vazquez and I can’t help but to think that either Hoerner or Swanson won’t actually be healthy to play next week.
For some reason the Cubs refused to place Hoerner on the injured list this past week, as he missed six consecutive games with a hamstring issue and was never used as a pinch-hitter either. The team played short a man and there’s no real acceptable explanation as to why they kept Hoerner active despite no actual progress being made by him.
So, yeah, the timing of this call up is a bit concerning because Hoerner or Swanson, who has been out with a knee injury, maybe aren’t good to go and the team is finally going to get a healthy body up from Triple-A.
On the other hand, maybe Hoerner and Swanson will both be back Tuesday, which means infielders Nick Madrigal and Miles Mastrobuoni will be optioned to Triple-A, while Vazquez takes the remaining roster spot as the backup infielder?
But again, if it’s for Hoerner, I’m going to be super annoyed that the team completely botched that situation and volunteered to play one man short for a whole week.
As for Vazquez, he’s definitely an MLB-ready defensive infielder, who has played awesome at shortstop and has recently played third base with the Iowa Cubs. So, there is a chance that he becomes the new backup to Christopher Morel and Madrigal is demoted? And actually, fingers crossed that it’s not Morel who is dealing with an injury because he’s been banged up all week.
So, a good glove is what you should expect from Vazquez once he’s up and getting some playing time. He does have some pop, ending the 2023 minor league season with 20 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A. So far in 2024, Vazquez has a slash line of .270/.369/.409, with three homers in 164 plate appearances. However, the right-handed hitter is in a slump at the moment, as Vazquez entered Sunday going 8 for his last 56 since April 27, slashing .143/.273/.232, in 15 games.
We’ll see how the Cubs shuffle up their roster ahead of their series opener against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. Hopefully the Cubs do actually come out healthy from this and Vazquez replaces Madrigal, while Swanson returns and pushes out Mastrobuoni.
