The Chicago Cubs are poised to make a run at wresting the National League Central crown away from the Milwaukee Brewers and have made some shrewd maneuvers to that end this winter.
While the team has not been a major player in winter’s free-agent frenzy, Chicago has cleared salary space and brought in superstar talent via trade.
However, the deal for All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker left the Cubs without a starting third baseman after Issac Paredes was sent to the Houston Astros in the package.
While many northsiders are clamoring for the team to sign Astros’ free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman to fill that void, MLB Insider Francys Romero said the Cubs are among the teams interested in taking a shot on former Chicago White Sox standout Yoan Moncada for the position.
Moncada, a nine-year MLB veteran, has played mostly third base in his big-league career and was stationed at second base for all of his 2017 and 2018 campaigns.
Moncada is talented yet injury-prone. Once considered one of the rising stars in MLB, he provided reliable production in the middle of the White Sox lineup in the latter seasons of the last decade.
Many believed Moncada was on his way to breaking out as a superstar in 2019 when he logged career bests with a .315 batting average, 25 home runs, and 79 RBI.
After a sub-par season in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, he turned in a solid yet unspectacular 2021 by hitting .263 with 14 homers and 61 RBI.
However, that’s where the injuries began for Moncada. In 2022, he missed nearly 60 games due to quad, hamstring, foot, and oblique injuries. The next season, he played in just 92 games due to a recurring back issue.
Last season, he played his fewest games (12) since his MLB-debut campaign with the Boston Red Sox in 2016 due to an adductor strain suffered in April.
After hitting 25 round-trippers in 2019, Moncada took the ball deep just 23 times since the end of the 2021 season.
The White Sox declined their $25 million team option to retain Moncada after the World Series ended, making him a free agent.
Spotrac calculates Moncada’s market value at $1.5 million on a one-year contract.
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