The Cubs offense has become dormant.
I could not watch yesterday's Rizzo's at-bats. He was swinging at pitches while on his knees.
His form is his rookie season Padre bad. He needs to take a day off to clear his head, but the Cubs roster does not have a real back up plan (Baez is not the answer).
When Szczur came off the DL (and Heyward did not go on the DL), the Cubs made the move of designating for assignment relief pitcher Ramirez. This move kept three catchers on the roster. That signals that Montero is not fully healthy (since Ross caught two games in a row). Keeping a marginal emergency third catcher with no offense/OBP is not helping scoring runs.
The call-up needed is Iowa 1B Dan Vogelbach.
He has hit some monster home runs in his sixth minor league season. In 39 games, he has hit .319, 7 HR and 31 RBI. He only has played first base which limits what he can go on the major league roster.
But Kyle Schwarber's surprise promotion did spark the 2015 Cubs. The current Cubs need some sort of instant offense capability since the line up is currently in a collective funk.
The only other option would be catcher Wilson Contreras, but the front office is adamant about not starting service time on him. Contreras, 24, is in his 8th minor league season. He is currently hitting .328, 3 HR, 20 RBI in 37 games. He has played catcher, first base, third base and left field. He would fit the Maddon versatility mold.
Theo Epstein predicted last week the Cubs were going to have a slow, sluggish period. Well, the Cubs are in that rut. The Cubs need to find some offense quickly of the hot start and comfortable lead in the NL Central can evaporate.
