For all the Cubs winning the off-season, the everyday lineup
is not very stable, at least defensively.
It may come down to this:
LF: Soler and Schwarber platoon
CF: Coghlan and Szczur platoon
RF: Heyward
3B: Bryant
SS: Russell
2B: Zobrist
1B: Rizzo
C: Montero, Ross (catching Lester), Schwarber (catching Hendricks)
Joe Maddon may have to become a master magician to balance the offensive potential with the defense weakness. One way of doing that is to play Heyward in his natural right field spot. Wrigley right field is a hard sun field so the quicker Heyward can adapt, the better for the defense.
Soler and Schwarber are both similar batters: high power potential but with inconsistent batting average and OBP. It is often said that left field is where you put your worst defensive outfielders. Soler and Schwarber are those players.
A center field platoon of Coghlan and Szczur is not the best solution, but since the Cubs are already overbudget on payroll, a new center fielder is not a viable option. Unless the Cubs can trade some salary (Hammel, who is believed the odd man out in the rotation), the Cubs will run with better defensive options in center than Heyward.
In order to make the Castro trade make sense, Warren will probably be the 5th starter on opening day. He made 17 starts for the Yankees last season, and reports indicate that he did well. Maddon lost confidence in Hammel, so I don't think he sets up well as the Edwin Jackson bullpen replacement when he was demoted from his starting spot.
You need to keep Schwarber's bat in the line up so becoming Hendricks personal catcher could help. They both worked together in the minors, so that may be a solution.
