Chicago Cubs: 2019 letter grades for each player
By Bill Felber
Chicago Cubs: The of the Lot
Nick Castellanos, Grade: A. The Chicago Cubs had only one player in 2019 who merited an A grade … and they’re losing him. Nick Castellanos, acquired in a deadline trade with the Detroit Tigers, provided immediate and serious impact in right field.
In Chicago, Castellanos batted .321 with 16 home runs, 21 doubles, 36 RBIs and a 151 OPS+, easily the team’s best.
If the Cubs had a team full of Castellanos, they’d be playing in the World Series right now.
Unfortunately for Cubs fans, the 2020 team probably won’t have even one Castellanos. He is a free agent this winter, so all of the uptick he provided the Chicago offense in August and September amounted to nothing more than a personal salary drive.
Kyle Schwarber, Grade: B+. Schwarber’s performance is a Rorschach test for how you view performance stats. If you like power, he’s your guy. If you want contact, he’s trade bait. His .250 average was a career-best, and his 38 home runs led the team. There’s real value in that. But he also struck out 156 times, and all that no-contact drove his OPS+ down to 120, which is good but well short of heroic.
Defensively, the best that can be said of Schwarber is that he tries and he rarely embarrasses himself. He will never be a great left fielder – not that there is such a thing – but the Cubs will overlook that in return for 38 home runs.
Javier Baez, Grade B+. Baez matured into a more stabilizing force in the Cubs lineup in 2019. For one thing, he found a position: shortstop. His batting average, home run, and RBI totals all moderated somewhat from their 2018 career highs, but they did so within acceptable ranges.
He still strikes out too much, a product of his desire to chase, but at 28 percent he’s no longer the wild man he once was. His 91 mph average exit velocity shows that when he hits the ball, it stays hit.
Defensively, there is little to work on. Baez ranks among the game’s best. All that stands between him and a solid A grade is a bit more strike zone judgment, leading to more contact and in turn to a higher batting average.
Anthony Rizzo, Grade: B+. At age 29, Rizzo’s is a mature, consistent and solid performance. In 2019 he batted .293 with 27 home runs and 94 RBIs. That’s no longer enough to win him an All-Star spot but he’s still probably among the top tier of National League first basemen.
His 137 OPS+ was best on the team for anybody who played the entire season in Chicago.