Will Addison Russell be better than Kris Bryant?
Kris Bryant is the talk of baseball, but could fellow Cubs prospect Addison Russell best him?
It’s not usually advisable to question Billy Beane, but this is one case where we can: Beane should never have traded Addison Russell. Last summer, with his Oakland A’s rolling with the best record in MLB, Beane made a risky win-now move, trading Russell, his top prospect, for Chicago Cubs pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. The A’s fell apart down the stretch, eventually losing in the wild card game, and Beane traded Samardzija to the White Sox in the offseason, in part for a lesser shortstop prospect, Marcus Semien.
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Meanwhile, Russell was just promoted by the Cubs, where he will take the place of injured second baseman Tommy La Stella. If all goes well, Russell could be up for a while, joining fellow recent promotion Kris Bryant in the Cubs infield for years to come.
Bryant has been the talk of the baseball world since March, whether it was for the Cubs’ decision to leave him in the minors for two weeks, or his eventual promotion, or the way he’s going to immediately set the baseball world on fire.
Expectations are sky-high for Bryant, but Russell’s no slouch either; the 21-year-old shortstop was ranked in the top five prospect lists of most major publications (MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus, etc.) coming into this season. In fact, there are several possible reasons that Russell could actually be the better of the two star Cubs prospects.
When Bryant came out of high school, he was seen as a “risky swing-and-miss type prospect according to FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel. He’s mostly gotten past that by now, but strikeouts could be an issue for him. He’s not going to be Mark Reynolds or anything, but he may end up more like a high-strikeout hitter like prime Adam Dunn rather than Alex Rodriguez. And for all the jokes made about the Cubs’ obviously fake reasoning for keeping Bryant in the minors for two weeks, the fact is that his defense at third does need some work.
Russell, meanwhile, grades out very highly in many categories– FanGraphs gives him the top possible grades for running, throwing, and raw power, as well as a very good fielding grade. He’ll be a second baseman for now, but he’s expected to be a shortstop going forward, which will force the Cubs to make some tough decisions regarding incumbent Starlin Castro. Baseball America says that the 21-year-old Russell “has always seemed polished beyond his years. He plays shortstop with grace and skill, takes quality at-bats, understands the strike zone and displays the kind of leadership skills more commonly seen in veterans.”
If Cubs fans were already drooling about Bryant, that report may have set them over the edge. If Russell continues the trend of playing beyond his years, he could be a major league fixture for good. And of all the Cubs’ highly regarded prospects (including Javier Baez and Jorge Soler), it’s Russell, the former A’s prospect, who may end up being the best of them all.
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