Chicago Cubs reportedly sending Kyle Schwarber to Triple-A Iowa

 After a brutal start to the season, the Chicago Cubs are sending outfielder Kyle Schwarber to the minor leagues.

According to CSN Chicago’s David Kaplan, the Chicago Cubs are sending slugger Kyle Schwarber to Triple-A Iowa.

Schwarber became a folk hero last postseason, returning to the Cubs in the World Series after missing a huge majority of the season with a massive knee injury. Schwarber hit an incredible .412/.500/.471 in 20 World Series plate appearances and was a major reason why the Cubs were able to end their 108-year drought.

Joe Maddon put Schwarber as the Cubs’ primary leadoff hitter to start the 2017 season and he has never been able to get on track. Schwarber is hitting an ugly .171/.295/.378 through 261 plate appearances in 2017.

That being said, could Schwarber just have been experiencing some bad luck? His ridiculously low .193 BABIP suggests that could be the case. Schwarber has not looked great at the plate all season long, but that kind of BABIP should turn around eventually.

While the traditional number hadn’t shown it, he had also been much more productive recently. In the month of June, Schwarber had a wRC+ of 119 (FanGraphs), which is well above league average. His 27.3% strikeout rate and 16.4% walk rate suggested that a turnaround was about to come as well.

I get it, Schwarber has not been productive and the Cubs need to win games now. However, I think they may have pulled the trigger too quickly on this one.

Schwarber is still a talented offensive player who has a ton of long-term upside and the advanced stats suggest that he may be on the brink of breaking out. That being said, there is no perfect way to predict this kind of stuff.

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Hopefully, Schwarber just goes down for a couple of weeks, gets his head clear and comes back with a vengeance. If the Chicago Cubs are going to reach their potential in 2017, Kyle Schwarber has to be a major part of it.