As the trading deadline dust settled last night, and the Cubs being one-hit by the Pirates at a very empty Wrigley Field, one must ask whether this is the franchise bottom and/or the start of the new team construction under Epstein and Hoyer?
On the current roster, who are the players that are clearly the Cubs future?
In the outfield, Soriano, DeJesus and LaHair are not the future. The Cubs tried to unload Soriano and LaHair this year, but with no real takers. Soriano's contract alone anchors him to LF, but he is on the decline. LaHair has turned into another old AAAA player.
In the infield, Valbuena, Barney are not the future. Valbuena is a journeyman covering the bag because the woeful Ian Stewart got hurt (he is also not part of the future rebuild). Barney may be a nice scrappy little player in the popular Ryan Theriot mode, but he is not as productive as the Pirates' Neil Walker (11 HRs, 56 RBI). In modern baseball you need position players with more offensive pop than average defense. Rizzo and Castro are in the Cubs future.
Behind the plate, Clevenger and Castillo will have to earn their keep quickly. The Cubs will have to promote more and more young pitchers through the system quicker than normal because ownership and the fan base cannot wait to 2015 for a competitive squad. They will platoon for the rest of this summer.
In the rotation, Garza is not the future as the Cubs really wanted to trade him but an injury cost them to opportunity to make the big deal. It is highly unlikely the Cubs will spend big money on a contract extension with Garza, who has not shown Verlander-ace performance while in a Cub uniform. Samardzija is on the fence; as a first year starter he is playing for a contract and a raise. Since the Cubs kept him out of trade discussions means they want to keep him around, at least for the short term. Travis Wood, by default, has to be part of the future rotation, as the only viable lefty starter in the organization.
Volstad, Coleman, Germano appear to be spot starters and placeholders and not keys to the rebuilding plan.
In the bullpen, only Jeff Russell appears to be part of the future. Marmol's inconsistency and his contract dooms him to be moved in the off-season. Maine, Mateo, Corpas and Camp are not long term assets. Besides, most scouts believe the four right handed pitchers the Cubs obtained at the trade deadline all project to bullpen relievers.
In the minors, who is supposed to be the future? The rebuilding and roster turnover has to begin next year in earnest.
At Iowa, Brett Jackson is the CF in waiting; except his strike out totals are looming large. Josh Vitters has been the perennial third base prospect for years. Due to the lack of depth, he will get his shot next season.
The Cubs front office has an arbitrary 500 AB quota for AAA position players before promotion to the majors, so prospects like Lake, Baez, Sczur, Torreyes must wait at least two years before being "ready" for promotion.
And it will take an IBM supercomputer to sort out all the pitchers the Cubs have acquired in the last six months to see if any of them are keepers.
So as it stands today, the Cubs future is in the hands of the following players:
Castro, Rizzo, Samardzija, T. Wood, Russell, B. Jackson and Vitters.
