It’s not Chris Cotillo breaking the news, but it’s close:
Congrats to my bash brother @kschwarb12 on the call to the show. Gonna miss my boy but couldn’t be more happy for a better dude. Go ball out
— Daniel Vogelbach (@DanielVogelbach) June 16, 2015
This is obviously pretty epic news. The first thought is the correct one – the Cubs have 5 of their next 6 games in AL parks (the Cubs have a 2 and 2 against Indians with the first postponed, and then 3 at Minnesota). The tentative plan per Bruce Miles is to have Schwarber only be up until Sunday, and then to go down to AAA to work on catching.
#Cubs confirm Kyle Schwarber to join big league team for next six days and then head to Triple-A — Bruce Miles (@BruceMiles2112) June 16, 2015
The Cubs only have 39 men on the 40-man roster right now, so they had room (and they’ll have more if/when they DFA Edwin Jackson), and the Cubs don’t need to carry the obscene 14-man staff they have going now with AL-park games and the extra day of rest they had today. As always, the Schlitter option is the most likely scenario, though it wouldn’t surprise me to see Strop hit the DL either given how uncomfortable he’s looked lately.
A lot of this can be attributed to Joe Maddon, I think. Maddon has repeatedly brought Schwarber’s name up in the past few weeks when asked about DH possibilities, and Maddon seems like the type (read: is the type) to push for that sort of thing even if it’s not exactly what Theo and Jed envisioned. The 6 days Schwarber spends on the Cubs this year is immaterial; there was always the chance he made the team later this year anyway, and you can delay his “development” for a week next year if you want to play the service time games. Even that might soon be moot: the Cubs are more competitive this year than I thought, and maybe more than the FO thought as well. Getting a big-time bat in the lineup for a week suddenly means more now than it appeared back in March.
That being said, don’t be surprised if Schwarber has a rough go of it. ZiPS projects a .234/.299/.427 line, which is good for a .318 wOBA (PECOTA is similar at .227/.299/.384). Steamer is much more pessimistic, with a .216/.272/.355 forecast. Neither of those are likely updated for Schwarber’s destruction of the Southern League…but the Indians and Twins don’t play in the Southern League (big if true, I know). It’s safe to assume he’s at least in the same stratosphere as Mike Baxter (the bat he’s replacing), and the upside is obviously huge.
Apropos of very little: did you know that Addison Russell is 10 months younger than Kyle Schwarber? That is freaking incredible! Russell is on pace for a 3.5 bWAR/WARP rookie season, and he is 21 years old.
Back to Schwarber. One of the slight downsides is that Montero and Schwarber are both lefties. It would make sense for them to platoon; this is a fairly minor problem as I imagine Schwarber will probably catch 2 days, DH two days, and be a bench bat one day. Montero and Schwarber can be in the lineup basically every day no matter what. I’m also happy that Schwarber basically gets a week with the excellent framers and players to see how MLB catching really is.
It is so fucking exciting to be a Cubs fan right now.
Theoretical Cubs lineup on Wednesday:
| Player | Position | Handedness |
| Fowler | CF | S |
| Rizzo | 1B | L |
| Bryant | 3B | R |
| Montero | C | L |
| Castro | SS | R |
| Schwarber | DH | L |
| Denorfia | RF | R |
| Coghlan | LF | L |
| Russell | 2B | R |
With Soler eligible to come off the DL that very day (though reports say he might be a week longer).
