Former Cubs player has terrible idea for team’s answer at catcher

The Chicago Cubs are down a catcher after losing Willson Contreras to free agency, and former Cubs player Cameron Maybin has a horrible solution.

The Cubs lost their All-Star catcher, Willson Contreras, to free agency this offseason. They’re in a bit of a tough situation with no clear replacement, and former player Cameron Maybin has come up with a solution, but not a good one.

Maybin’s solution is to sign Gary Sanchez, but that won’t nearly fill the void that Contreras leaves behind.

This past season, Sanchez had a rough run at-bat with the Minnesota Twins, slashing a low .205/.282/.377 for an OPS of .659. His best batting average since 2017 was .232 in 2019, further proving he hasn’t had a great season in the lineup in quite some time.

Unfortunately, he’s not much of a defender either. This season, he had a WPA of -0.83 and has produced a negative one each season since 2017. He had a WAR of 1.3, luckily not negative but still pretty low.

Contreras wasn’t necessarily a great defender this past season either, but it’s vital the Cubs fill in the lost power at-bat.

Gary Sanchez doesn’t begin to replace Willson Contreras for the Cubs

Contreras had a great season at-bat this past regular season, slashing .243/.349/.466 for an OPS of .815. While his batting average could’ve been a bit better, he hit with a lot of power and drove in quite a few runs because of it.

Considering neither of the two were great defenders in 2022, there’s not quite as much of a gap to fill there. Contreras is a great catcher, but he didn’t have a great season with a FRM of -3.5 and DRS of -4.

The Cubs can’t afford to lose power in the lineup. They need improvement overall after finishing the regular season with the 12th-worst batting average (.238), 14th-worst on-base percentage (.311), 12th-worst slugging percentage (.387) and 14th-worst OPS (.698).

Sanchez just simply won’t fill the holes that Contreras is leaving behind.