According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic the Chicago Cubs have inked outfielder Noel Cuevas to a minor league contract. The deal will pay him $575k if he is at the big league level.
Cuevas went 0-2 in his only big league game this year for the Rockies, but hit a solid .278/.358/.439 in 233 plate appearances for their AAA team in Albuquerque. He missed time due to a quad injury, returned, was not effective, and found himself designated for assignment in September.
The 28-year old appeared in 75 big league games for the Rockies in 2018, but he struggled horrifically posting a .233/.268/.315 line, which was good enough for a wRC+ of 41. He did post an above average contact rate of 81 percent and struck out just 15.7 percent of the time, but a complete inability to drive the ball (.082 ISO and 23 percent hard contact rate) and lack of plate discipline (3.9 percent walk rate and 3.35 pitches per plate appearance) exposed his flaws as a big league player.
Cuevas doesn't exactly excel defensively either, in 285.2 big league outfield innings he has been worth -4 runs defensively, though he did grade much better in right field than he did in left.
This isn't much more of a depth signing. Cuevas does add some much-needed contact skills to the organization, but he doesn't do enough with that contact to justify giving him a serious role with the big league club.
No comments:
Post a Comment