The Chicago Cubs won their series against the Atlanta Braves with a victory on Wednesday and now only have five series left before the playoffs begin.
The team is in position to end a four-year postseason drought, but faces some pressure to make a deep run in what might be Kyle Tucker’s sole season with the franchise before leaving in free agency. As a result, the Cubs are fine-tuning their roster where they can in the final weeks.
Most recently, that meant bringing in veteran slugger Carlos Santana, who was made eligible for the team’s playoff roster when he was signed at the start of the month. And now with Santana in the fold, the team is projected to remove another veteran slugger from the 26-man playoff roster come playoff time.
“(Justin) Turner hasn’t been the sort of valuable bench bat Chicago envisioned this year,” Chris Landers wrote for FanSided, prediction the Cubs would remove him. “At this point, his value adds are really veteran leadership and an ability to hit lefties, the latter of which was mitigated by the addition of switch-hitting first baseman/DH Carlo Santana.”
Turner, who has been a two-time All-Star in a 17-year big-league career, is slashing just .213/.284/.316 with the Cubs this season in 155 at-bats. He has a $10 million mutual option with the team for next season, and it seems pretty unlikely that the Cubs will want to pick that up. But in the meantime, they can continue to enjoy his veteran presence in the dugout while clearing his roster spot for the playoffs in a few weeks.
“The Santana move seems to have more or less sealed Turner’s fate come playoff time; but he’ll still be in the dugout coaching up the youngsters,” Landers added.
With the intensity set to ramp up in October and the team looking to get Tucker back healthy and ready for a deep run before free agency, it seems Turner might be getting a jump on a future coaching career soon.
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