It’s taken less than a week for Cubs to prove the Owen Caissie call-up was pointless

The Chicago Cubs made a pretty surprising move on Thursday, promoting top prospect Owen Caissie to the majors. Caissie, an outfielder who had an .893 OPS in 220 Triple-A games prior to his call-up, was more than deserving of the big league promotion, but the reason why it was surprising was that the Cubs didn't exactly have a spot for him to play regularly on their big league roster. This is proving to be true, as Caissie DH'd on Thursday, but sat in Friday's game and is on the bench once again on Saturday.

Sitting Caissie two days in a row is one thing, doing so against a pair of right-handed pitchers is another. If he isn't playing in these games, why promote him to begin with? If he isn't playing now against right-handed pitching while the Cubs' offense is struggling and Chicago hasn't gotten much from its outfielders or DH, when is he going to play?

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Cubs prove in record time that they have no room for Owen Caissie

Ultimately, the Cubs have no room for Caissie - that's what this comes down to. Yes, Pete Crow-Armstrong hasn't been hitting lately, but he's still a Gold Glove-caliber defender at a preimum position and, when right, is a star hitter - he's not getting benched, especially for Caissie, a corner outfielder. Kyle Tucker has struggled lately, but he's Kyle Tucker - he's not getting benched. Seiya Suzuki has struggles, but he's Seiya Suzuki - he's not getting benched. Ian Happ is the only player who can conceivably get benched, but he's been the best performer of this quartet, and he's also too good to bench.

Given the fact that there's no room for him in the bigs, it's curious that the Cubs called him up. The one thing organizations try their hardest not to do with top prospects is call them up without a clear path to playing time. The Cubs, for reasons only they can explain, did that with Caissie.

Ultimately, what this shows is that the Cubs should have simply traded Caissie at the trade deadline.

Cubs' trade deadline mistake is making itself clear once again

It's never fun to part with a top prospect of Caissie's caliber. Sending him elsewhere could absolutely come back to haunt the Cubs. However, the Cubs had a chance to go all-in right now. They could've traded Caissie, a player they clearly have no use for right now, and gotten the starting pitcher they desperately needed. Obviously, the Cubs would've had to add more on top of Caissie to get, say, Joe Ryan, but why didn't they just do that?

The path to playing time is hard to envision for Caissie. Sure, he might play in 2026 if they lose Tucker to free agency, but should the Cubs even want that? Caissie might become a nice player, but Tucker is a bonafide superstar despite his recent slump. If I had to decide between one or the other, I know who I'd choose.

Trading him would've given the Cubs a better chance to win now while also making it clear that Tucker will be their No. 1 priority over the offseason. Refusing to do so raises the question of whether Tucker will be back, and has Caissie simply stuck. He's too good for Triple-A, obviously, but isn't good enough to crack this Cubs lineup with any regularity in the team's mind.

At the end of the day, there's no point in calling him up if he's going to sit on the bench more often than not, and he's too good to keep in Triple-A. Trading him would've solved both of these issues at once while simultaneously boosting Chicago's World Series odds.