So far this off-season the Cubs needed to address so many problems you can only begin to list them. First off, starting pitching. Then the bullpen. Then you kind of realize you have no third baseman and one of the worst offensive and defensive outfields in all of baseball. Finally the bench.
How have they done thus far? Meh.
Right now the starting rotation consists in one guy coming off his first full season in the rotation (Samardzija), two decent starters coming off injuries (Garza and Baker), and two proven mediocrities (Feldman and Wood), of whom only one seems to have a significant potential upside (Wood).
To bolster the bullpen, the Cubs re-signed the free agent Camp (meh) and added the Japanese free agent Fujikawa, a genuine plus. Marmol now becomes somewhat superfluous. Russell is the only other guy in the pen who adds anything.
As far as the outfield and the bench goes, pretty much nothing. The Cubs picked up Nate Schierholtz on a one-year deal. This guy has been a reserve all his career, so he can hardly qualify as a game-changer. Plus his performance so far leads one to categorize him as a left-handed platoon player pure and simple who doesn't get on base. This probably leads to the less than thrilling conclusion he will platoon with Dave Sappelt in right until the Cubs conclude someone is ready to come up from the minors.
Soriano is still on the team in left field. DeJesus, I suppose, will start the year in center with Jackson back at AAA. Jackson has supposedly reconfigured his swing in an effort to bring his strikeout rate below 50%.
Navarro was a good pick up to back up Castillo at catcher, but, beyond that, there isn't much depth. Looks like they will go into the year with Luis Valbuena at third even if they sign the non-tendered Ian Stewart.
To be honest, this team looks a little worse on paper than last year's going into the season. Hard to be optimistic, isn't it?
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