The Chicago Cubs were so sold on Matt Shaw being their Opening Day third baseman to the point where they did not add much depth behind him at the position. One of the players the Cubs stashed in their organization as depth was Vidal Brujan, who the team acquired in a trade with the Miami Marlins soon after he was DFA'd. Cubs fans didn't understand the trade to acquire him at the time, and they don't understand why he's still on the team's active roster right now.
To be honest, I don't understand why they traded for him and still roster him either. Brujan entered this season with a career slash line of .189/.261/.270 with five home runs and 40 RBI over parts of four seasons. Sure, he offers decent speed and solid defensive versatility, but his bat has never played at the MLB level. He was worth a career -1.2 bWAR over that four-season span.
It's tough to see the appeal when it came to trading for him, and it's definitely tough to justify the team rostering him at this point.
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Cubs should value Vidal Brujan's roster spot more than they evidently do
Brujan was placed on the IL with an elbow injury after just one appearance, but was activated from the IL when the team sent Shaw back down to the minors. The date of that transaction was April 15. In nearly a month of action since then, Brujan has appeared in 11 games and has totaled 10 plate appearances. He has two hits in 10 at-bats overall with three strikeouts. He has started a grand total of two games.
Brujan's opportunities for playing time are few and far between. At this point, he's essentially a pinch runner or someone they use in lopsided affairs. In other words, the Cubs want nothing to do with him starting a game or taking a meaningful at-bat. Given that, why exactly is he on the roster?
I get that he has speed and that he can play virtually anywhere on the diamond, but do the Cubs not have a single player on their Triple-A roster who can play a larger role than Brujan has? Again, he rarely ever sees the field in a meaningful way outside of pinch-running appearances here and there.
The Cubs have Jonathon Long, who has raked at Triple-A all season long and has even made some appearances at third base. They also have Ben Cowles, a player who might not offer as much offensively but is probably a better defender and is already on the 40-man roster. Maybe he should get a crack. They really need to just try something different with this roster spot that they aren't using.
Brujan is out of options, but that shouldn't mean anything. If the Cubs don't trust him enough to play him over guys like Jon Berti and Nicky Lopez at third base, there's no reason he should be on their active roster. Hopefully, the Cubs come to their senses and begin to value that roster spot more than they have been.