Surprise surprise: Jed Hoyer shows zero interest in addressing one of Cubs' biggest needs
Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, has been active early this offseason, which is a nice change of pace after his frustrating patience from last winter. The Cubs not only addressed the back of their rotation by signing Matthew Boyd, but also made a major bullpen addition by trading for Eli Morgan.
At the end of the day, you can never have enough pitching, and Hoyer has made two sensible additions already. Morgan, in particular, helps address a major need.
With that being said, though, the Cubs didn't just enter this offseason with one or two needs. Hoyer has done little to address what could be Chicago's biggest need, the catcher position, and with guys like Danny Jansen and Gary Sanchez now officially off the market, there isn't much else out there for Hoyer to even look at.
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Recent FA signings all but confirms Jed Hoyer will fail to address one of the biggest Cubs weaknesses
Cubs catchers were among the worst in all of baseball this past season. Not only did they rank 26th in the majors with a 69 WRC+, but they were tied for 28th with -0.1 fWAR. The only team below them in that category was the 121-loss Chicago White Sox.
Miguel Amaya did finish strongly, but he also had a .644 OPS as the team's primary catcher. Christian Bethancourt played pretty well in his short Cubs stint, but his track record suggests that isn't sustainable, plus, he's a free agent.
With Chicago in dire need of some catching help, the team traded for Matt Thaiss earlier this offseason. While Thaiss was a first-round pick once upon a time, he has just a .655 OPS in parts of six MLB seasons. Getting away from the Los Angeles Angels might help a bit, but nothing about what Thaiss - a player who is out of minor league options - has done, suggests that he'll be serviceable even as a backup.
Amaya is just 25, but he hasn't shown much at the MLB level. Thaiss has shown even less. Both of these players are out of minor league options. Moises Ballesteros is an intriguing prospect in the upper minors, but can he really be counted on as the solution for a team trying to win? Considering the fact that the best free agent out there is probably Carson Kelly, the Cubs might have to bank on Ballesteros more than they probably should.
There wasn't much out there to begin with, and it's not as if Jansen and Sanchez were guaranteed to be much better than Amaya, but they are, at the very least, veterans with decent track records. Essentially running back a catching group that was among the worst in the league last season is a choice, and not a very good one, for a team that says it's seriously trying to compete.