Chicago Cubs: Four position players who must excel in 2018
1. Ben Zobrist
Obviously, the Chicago Cubs and their fans owe a lot to Zobrist, their 2016 World Series MVP, for everything he gave them in their championship season and postseason.
That said, it’s okay to also acknowledge the fact that he was bad last year relative to his standards.
After hitting .272/.386/.831 in his first season in Chicago, Zobrist fell off pretty hard in 2017 (.232/.318/.693). And the postseason? Well…yeah. It would’ve been bad even without the hitless NLCS, though that obviously didn’t help the numbers.
Some of that may have had to do with health issues, which he now believes are behind him. And some early projections have him ascending toward his mean production more (.250/.343/.755 with 14 home runs and 56 RBI). If he can do that at age 37, the Chicago Cubs will absolutely take that.
And, assuming he’s healthy, maybe he can improve on last year’s .253/.330/.768 slash at the leadoff spot as he gets the first shot to win the job.
But, of course, are those numbers too much to expect from an aging guy who just had his worst season in about eight years?
Ben Zobrist: "Nobody in this room is going, ‘Oh, we were division winners last year’ or whatever. Nobody really cares about that at this point. We want to be World Series champions again.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) February 18, 2018
And if he struggles to produce/struggles with injuries, how much will they be able to count on him? One would expect that Zobrist will probably get more than a few rest days anyway to save him for the postseason run.
Will he maintain his rhythm?
One hopes that, in the end, Zobrist’s underlying dependability will win out and the Chicago Cubs can get a year or two more of productive play from him.