The Cubs have not had a long term solution for third base since Ron Santo retired.
Some say the Cubs now have stock piled third base prospects in the minors which may suddenly cause too much competition for the spot.
Many scouts probject Kris Bryant as a corner outfielder
when he reaches the majors, but the Cubs have many other options in the pipeline as well (Soler, Lake, Baez potentially). However, Bryant's college coach told teams he believes Bryant is
capable of playing the position.
Some other people thought that the Cubs found their solution(s) with recent trades with the Rangers, but others believed the Cubs may have been snookered by Texas. Mike Olt ended last year at AAA, but he continues to struggle at the plate with possible visions issues. Christian Villanueva was supposed to be the hot prospect, but he ended at AA and not has progressed as fast as his press clippings.
Kris Bryant dominated in his first rookie season, ending at high A. There is no reason not to fast track Byrant to AA in 2014. Holdover Jeimer Candelario has kept off the radar, ended last season at low A.
The best third baseman of the bunch could actually wind up to the Baez. But the team has continued to keep Baez at shortstop. This may be a clue that the front office is still on the fence on Starlin Castro, even though they signed him to a long term extension. As I speculated, Castro's contract could easily be traded to a team like the Yankees after Derek Jeter retires. But if the Cubs keep Castro, then Baez will need to move either to third or second (which would be a harder transition) or play the outfield.
The team will not have to make the hard decisions if Olt wins the third base job in spring training. It would buy the Cubs another year to sort out where their prospects best fit major league needs. But there has been nothing shown to make the case that Olt is going to play better than the Valbuena-Murphy platoon.
