Cubs Willson Contreras Unfair Comparison to Kyle Schwarber

The previous point is indicative of another difference between the two young players. The Cubs clearly never wanted Schwarber to catch. The organization prizes their catchers’ ability to receive and frame pitches, be efficient with their footwork, and cerebral in their game planning with and management of the pitching staff. Schwarber was never the archetype of such a player, even if the Cubs brass was reportedly impressed by his insistence that he could ultimately persevere at this most demanding of positions.

Contreras, on the other hand, is made to catch, and the Cubs know it. They are grooming him to be the catcher of the future, even if they are currently just looking for ways to keep his bat in the lineup. His ability and willingness to be used in a roaming, versatile fashion should not be mistaken as the Cubs seeing his bat (and his glove for that matter) in the same way they view Schwarber’s (that being that the robust bat makes the subpar glove worth it). If anything is pushing Kyle Schwarber to a more permanent role in the Cubs outfield in 2017 and beyond it is Willson Contreras.

Perhaps the most important distinction of all has nothing to do with either of the two players being compared. Rather, the difference lies in the place the Cubs find themselves this season as opposed to last summer. When Kyle Schwarber arrived (he made a brief appearance as the team’s DH during a two-series interleague trip in June before his later call-up) on July 17th of last year the Cubs were 47-41, nine games in back of the Cardinals, and just a game ahead of the Giants for the NL’s second wild card spot.

The team’s third best hitter was Chris Coghlan, and one of their two main bats, Kris Bryant, was in the midst of the first major slump of his recently begun career (he hit .168 in June). Dexter Fowler had yet to get going, so much so that there was talk of demoting him to a fourth outfielder’s role. The likes of Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward, and Javier Baez were not yet a part of the club, and even Anthony Rizzo was slowing down from his torrid April-May start.

Kyle Schwarber carried the Cubs offense, almost single handedly, for several weeks, a month even. He put on a historic power display, blasting 16 home runs in just 273 PA’s (232 AB’s). He later accentuated his budding stardom by rebounding from a late September funk by hitting a club-record five homers in nine postseason games, including the blast that gave Jake Arrieta the lead he’d never surrender in the one-game wild card, and the ball that landed on the Budweiser sign that poetically signaled the end of the Cardinals 100 win season.

Next: The resulting impact