Written by Mike Axisa at CBSSports.com
Thursday night, the Cubs were given a scare when Kyle Schwarber and Dexter Fowler collided in the outfield. Fowler walked away unhurt, but Schwarber suffered a sprained left ankle and will go for an MRI on Friday. Initial X-rays did come back negative.
Here is the collision. It’s amazing Fowler walked away with no injuries:
It’s encouraging to hear the X-rays came back negative, but, as always, Schwarber will not be completely out of the woods until the MRI comes back clean. Let’s hope there is no ligament or other structural damage in the ankle.
Schwarber, 23, hit .246/.355/.487 (128 OPS+) with 16 home runs in 69 games last season, his rookie year. As productive as he is, an argument can be made he is no better than Chicago’s sixth best hitter. The Cubs are that good.
Obviously the Cubbies hope Schwarber will return sooner rather than later. Regardless of how long he will be sidelined, the team is in good position to survive the injury for a few reasons.
They have outfield depth.
Most teams would go to great lengths to get their hands on a promising young outfielder like Jorge Soler. The Cubs don’t even have a regular lineup spot for him. With Fowler in center and Jason Heyward in right, Soler is stuck fighting for left field time with Schwarber, and since Schwarber has been the better hitter, he was expected to get most of the playing time.
The Schwarber injury opens up left field for Soler. If the Cubs don’t want to go that direction, they can turn to Matt Szczur, who drove in three runs Monday and homered Tuesday. And if that doesn’t work, they have Javier Baez (thumb) and Shane Victorino (calf) nearing returns from injury. (Baez is a natural shortstop, but the Cubs have been working him out in the outfield for a while.)
Now here’s the crazy thing: The Cubs have all these outfield options, and they still didn’t use any of them when Schwarber got hurt. Rather than put Soler or Szczur in left field after Schwarber was carted off, they put Tommy La Stella at third base and slid Kris Bryant to left field. The Cubs are deep with quality depth pieces. They don’t have a Plan B. They have a Plan B, C, and D.
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