Cubs catcher/outfielder Kyle Schwarber will miss the season after being diagnosed with full tears to the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments of his left knee, the club has informed reporters including Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com (Twitter link). Schwarber suffered the injury in an outfield collision last night.
Schwarber was initially diagnosed with only a significant ankle sprain, with x-rays negative for fractures. But the force of the impact with center fielder Dexter Fowler obviously caused much more significant damage to his knee. Now, his ACL and LCL will require surgery and extensive rehab.
Needless to say, it’s a major blow for the high-powered Cubs offense and the rising 23-year-old star. Schwarber was expected to see significant action in the outfield this season, sharing time with right-handed hitting youngster Jorge Soler after the club added Jason Heyward and re-signed Fowler over the winter. He was also set to see limited time behind the plate — his natural position — behind top two options Miguel Montero and David Ross, in hopes that he’d be eased into a more regular catching role in the future.
While losing Schwarber’s high-quality bat is a big loss, Chicago is better positioned to absorb the blow than the Diamondbacks were when they saw A.J. Pollock go down. Soler, Kris Bryant, Matt Szczur, and perhaps Javier Baez provide rather promising options, though they all swing from the right side. The club dealt away left-handed-hitting outfielder/infielder Chris Coghlan in conjunction with the re-acquisition of Fowler, taking away their top platoon option against right-handed pitching.
The biggest impact, in some ways, could be down the line. Schwarber has shown the athleticism to turn into a big league catcher, but is said to need to add polish to that element of his game. Of course, he’s also new to the outfield. Losing the chance to continue to hone his skills on defense — and to see more left-handed MLB pitching, which posed a challenge last year — could impact his development. That’s all before considering the possible long-term impact of what is unquestionably a significant knee injury.
With Schwarber unable to resume his progress as a backstop, top prospect Willson Contreras becomes an even more important asset. His own development has been a significant sub-plot for a Cubs organization that is full of major storylines. Montero is nearing 33 years of age and will be a free agent after 2017, while Ross is set to retire after the season. The door is now open next year — if not sooner — for the 23-year-old Contreras, who will open at Triple-A after a big 2015 in his first run at the Double-A level.
Terrible. He could have been the NL home run king
Wouldn’t have got nearly enough playing time.
He was projected to be in the lineup no matter what, except scheduled days off. Starting LF, catching twice a week and probably rotating DH during some interleague games. Not to mention he was their only power lefty besides Bryant. How do you figure he wouldn’t have had the playing time?
He would have definitely gotten the playing time but I think it was a bit of a stretch to think he’d have been the hr king.
Not only can Schwarber not hit lefties, Bryant isn’t left handed. And the NL home run king? What an asinine group of comments you left behind. I guess he technically had a shot. Dude was due for a steep regression this year. Hate to see what happened to him happen to anyone, but don’t act like it’s like losing a Pollock or something. Unfortunate, but the Cubs are probably better without him, honestly. Be a great bench bat or a guy to cycle around for off days, but he’s not a good every day left fielder.
This is the difference between a die hard Cub fan and a baseball fan who’s favorite team is the Cubs. Schwarber is a one dimensional player and that’s it. He will never be a full time player or win a batting title.
Braves could trade Nick Markakis, and MIchael Bourn to Cubs for Kyle Schwarber and Javier Baez. Or a straight up deal Markakis for Schwarber.
They have multiple better internal options.
Edit: Oh, wait, I didn’t realize that I was responding to trademeister.
Don’t you think the Cubs should throw in heyward and Rizzo to make that fair?
You guys are way overboard on your prospects. Schwarber may never play again. Markakis had 182 hits last year.
You are an idiot
Schwarber only had 57 last year. HECK! They should have traded him to ATL when he was healthy!
I agree with Bruinsfan. Trademeister is an idiot continuing to embarrass himself with such ludicrous trade proposals!
Never play again? He’s only 23 and suffered a very common injury in major sports(nfl mostly, which is harder on the knees). Players recover from this all the time, many of whom are years older, and come back just as good. Yes this will slow defensive developed but say he’ll never play again or that he is worthless in trades is idiotic.
Just another version of BigPapi4Ever. Not worth responding to. (oops, I just did.)
Typical Liberal move, criticize someone for something that you made up yourself.
i can’t stand the Cubs, but they would have to be on drugs to make that deal.
Braves had Heyward. Flipped him for Shelby Miller (1 Year), Tyrell Jenkins, Ender Inciarte, Dansby Swanson and Aaron Blair.
Not sure what that has to do with the idiotic comment you made
which is why they’re playing for the no. 1 draft pick next year
You’re an idiot. Go away
For another 100 years?
Lol at Markakis for Schwarber
….what?
or the Cubs could not trade for garbage and just wait until he gets better next year….
As a Braves fan it is hard to read some of these trade proposals, almost reminiscent of Bigpapi4ever. Prior to this injury I thought the Braves matched up well on a Julio for Soler type trade with prospects. But this injury obviously hurts the flexibility of the trade. I think Cubs are built well and are ready for this injury. Speedy recovery to Schwarber.
On the real…are you a troll or just totally clueless when it comes to trade value of players?
Injuries don’t wipe out trade value. You’ll eventually learn, it’s okay
This is a crushing blow to the Cubs hopes for the playoffs.
Crushing blow? As if the success of this season rested soley on Schwarber’s shoulders? You have no clue about baseball.
I was just repeating what Jeff Todd said in reaction to the D’backs losing A.J. Pollock.
Actually, I said the same thing you did in response.
Cubs > dbacks. Pollock > schwarber. Cubs depth > dbacks depth. Different situations.
Same concept though. Baseball is a team sport more so than basketball, where a point guard loss would be a devastating loss for example.
Cubs depth vs. D’backs depth is a highly subjective and debatable proposition.
I find the Cubs “depth” to be incredibly overrated. That said, I still think it’s worlds better than the Diamondbacks depth.
In my opinion, it’s not even that close.
You have an obvious bias.
Yeah, the Cubs have built a team that’s very flexible, which helps them pivot from an injury of this magnitude. It’s the whole reason that the loss of Pollock is so much more devastating for AZ, than the loss of Schwarber is for Chicago. Tough news in both cases, though. Good ballplayers.
Only you would find that debatable. And it’s not the same because the dbacks are a fringe team losing one of their best and the cubs are not fringe and not losing one of their best.
Yes but Pollack is a much different player and stature to the team than Schwarber.
Really? Read the other posts on this chain for people’s mixed attitudes about the Cubs vaunted depth. And keep in mind that the media shapes our attitudes toward those players and teams they select for attention. The Cubs get a lot of pub. for example and the D’backs are roundly ignored.
The big difference is that the D-Backs employ a “stars and scrubs” approach – Goldschmidt, Pollock, Greinke, Miller, Peralta are the obvious stars and then they carry a bunch of middling middle infielders (Segura, Owings, Ahmed) a guy with some potential (Lamb) and a guy who clearly can’t play (Tomas).
Some meh catchers, a below average bullpen. Losing Pollock, who is a 4 or 5 win player at least, hurts this team more than losing Schwarber, who was probably more like a 3-win player hurts the Cubs because the Cubs are pretty good at every position on the field..
The Cubs could easily just slide Zobrist to left and play LaStella, who is at least a league-average player at second, and not miss a beat, plus they have Soler and Baez on the bench. The D-Backs don’t have that kind of depth.
While I don’t share your sentiments that Arizona’s depth is as strong as the Cubs depth, I also think the talk regarding the Cubs depth has become ridiculous.
If you don’t bow down to a team that has played 4 games and call them the greatest ever, you’ll be called names and told you’re dumb.
When your “depth” consists of moving a no-hit shortstop to center field to replace one of the best players in baseball then, yes, your team lacks depth.
You can say that about all teams. Usually depth implies high upside players who have potential but haven’t proven anything yet. But you are right about the Dbacks. Now that being said, the depth is better because it was Schwarber that got injured not Rizzo just as it would have been the same if let’s say maybe Peralta that got injured. Schwarber is not necessarily a lynchpin in that offense yet. All that aside this is absolutely terrible new just as Pollock is. I hope both return to their forms.
Grasp…at…straws
Worst part for me is that I had both Pollock and Schwarber on my fantasy teams
Look up the Cubs runs per game last season with him in the line up as compared to their runs per game without him in the line up. Now there have been a couple of offensive changes, but he was a very important part.
I watched/listened to almost every Cubs inning last year. I know how important he was for all 69 games that he played in the regular season.
But again, to say that it’s a ‘Crushing Blow’ implying that the team is doomed now that he is out for the season is absolutely ludicrous.
Then you would know how average their offense was last year without him in the line up.
Ya as awful as it is to lose Schwarber they have plenty of in house options… this maybe takes them down 1-2 wins max
Not really.. It sucks that he’s out, but when you can say you have a backup option in Soler or Baez, who would be starters on almost every other team, you’re in a pretty damn good position. The Cubs depth is mind blowing.
If that were true about Soler, getting both Fowler and Heyward wasn’t necessary.
And if that were true, I’m sure someone would have worked out a trade for him.
Soler had a starting role in 2015. They signed players to take that role away. That should say something.
Agree. I think Soler is a bit overrated
Your logic, for lack of a better word, is kinda hilarious here. You see an injury that necessitates the use of one of our depth options, and somehow conclude that signing the players who created those depth options was an unnecessary endeavor. This would be a HUGE deal if we didn’t have Fowler and Heyward. Since we do, its not really that bad. The Cubs had extensive talks about trades involving both Soler and Javy. If they had wanted to, they could have traded them. They decided to hang on to them for depth, which as it turns out, was a very good move.
Jorge Soler was a starter in 2015. You don’t spend $200M to move a guy who would “start on almost every team” to the bench as a depth piece. If they wanted depth, they could have signed Alex Rios, or a myriad of other OF options for next to nothing.
That’s not to say Soler isn’t a good depth piece. He’ll serve as an adequate replacement for Schwarber. He’s not terrible.
But the idea that he could start on almost any other team is probably not true. And the Cubs showed how much of a “starter” he is by signing $200M worth of outfielders to start in his place.
The reason they got Heyward was primarily for his defensive prowess (which the Cubs lack sorely, especially in the OF). The reason they got Fowler was to give Heyward the opportunity to play his natural position. Neither of those signings was made because Soler isn’t qualified to be an everyday player.
They got fowler after camp started cuz he fell in their lap. Not like they planned to have him all offseason.
If Soler were an everyday starter, I think they would have put up with Heyward in CF. That’s my opinion.
Perhaps it’s that I’m not as bullish on every freaking Cubs player that exists like others seem to be.
They seemed prepared to. When you’re at a place on the win curve like the cubs are, spending 13m for 1 yr of fowler, to avoid playing a guy in a new position, makes sense.
It’s less to do with your expectations of players and more your failure to understand the value of certainty vs potential on different positions on a win curve.
Losing a platoon outfielder is not a crushing blow. It’s a hit, however.
There is no God
There is a God but He hates the Cubs
Wow devastating for that poor young man. Cubs will endure and he’s a tough cookie, he’ll get better and come back kicking ass next year.
Cubs have so many young, offensive pieces, theyll be fine. You can;t go wrong when you got Rizzo, Bryant, Soler, etc.
Very true, its more the fact that us baseball fans won’t get to watch this kid play for a year 🙁
*can’t* whoops lol
Guess Soler plays a whole lot more. Limits Schwarber even more defensively going forward. I can’t see him playing for the Cubs for to much longer. A DH trying to play the field.
Braves could trade Nick Markakis and Julio Teheran to the Cubs for Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras and Duane Underwood.
LOL
Seems a little light for the Braves return? Cubs should throw in Rizzo, Bryant and Arrieta too. But it still seems lopsided in the Cubs favor.
Terrible news. I hope the year lost to rehab and a reworked knee don’t forever end the Schwarber at catcher development. His bat would play anywhere, but behind the dish? Wow.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that’s what you get for deeming him “untouchable” in all your trades. Classic.
Bitter much? And how dare the Cubs for keeping their own player, right?
Stay classy
If I recall you’re a Padres fan? Good luck on getting those first runs. I think tonight might be the big breakthrough!
Laughing historically at a kid tearing his ACL… You deserve the Padres.
They have 9 runs today…
They scored 13 runs today dumbass.
The game wasn’t over when he posted that they had 9 runs (which they did at the time, hence why he said Have as opposed to Had)
Please excuse some of our more rude fans, we’re not all like that.
As for schwarber, I wish him a speedy recovery for next season.
Thank you… We know that there are always idiots. Appreciate your concern for our player (no one wishes season ending (perhaps career threatening) injury into anyone).
My son lives on 10th Ave, across to petco. Great ballpark to experience a game.. Good luck this year
These guys just can’t catch a break. A major left knee injury to a guy who shifts a lot of weight to his left leg when he is batting could be a career altering injury. For all of the naysayers out there, like it or not, this guy belongs in the AL as a DH. He is awkward and uncoordinated in the OF. Now you have to be cautious with this guy for the rest of his career that he doesn’t re-injury it. I.E. Derrick Rose. Another cubbie occurrence
The Cubs will make a trade to pick up a very good OF. They have the prospects to obtain one. My best guess is they let Soler have a crack at it and if he fails it will be one of those prospects traded for a real OFer.
They don’t need an OF. They have a logjam out there as is, even with Schwarber down.
You can play Soler, Szczur, Baez, Bryant, or Zobrist out in LF. There’s absolutely zero need to obtain another one.
Keep saying that to yourself. Bryant is a terrible OFer. Zorbist has limited range in OF. If Soler doesn’t impress they will make a trade. Just watch and see. I will remind you later of what you said after the trade happens.
If your issues are defensive, Almora is already ready to win a gold glove at the major league level and come up at any given moment in center to create one of the best defensive outfields in the game. After Soler, the Cubs have Almora, McKinney, Andreoli, and Happ to take over in the outfield before Epstein trades the depth of the team for a year long replacement.
And sczur and Baez. They will not be trading for an ofer as a result of this injury.
Hmmm……hey Joe Madden maybe it’s a plantar fasciitis injury like Kang’s from last year. Looked like a non-contact injury to me. Ain’t karma a beech!
Cubs lose quite a few HRs w/o Schwarber. Signing Fowler (QO devastated his market) was a very important move. This should give Soler/Baez more regular time. IMO, both Soler and Baez will get exposed a bit this year (boom/bust players) and their stock will go down. No consistency and lots of whiffs. The Cubs are still stacked and they are still the favorite in the central. Lose Rizzo or Arrieta and then there are major problems. Schwarber was already all bat, this injury is a real concern for his viability to play the outfield long term.
I disagree with the Soler prediction. I think this opens doors for him to prove his worth and take major strides towards his ceiling.
Sorry Cubs fans.
Tough break.
Happens to every team.
“Next”
This is just the beginning of crushing blows to the most overrated team in the history of baseball.
I think you mean the mets has being the most overrated team.
Mets is a proper noun.
Really? I don’t see how this affects the Red Sox.
Big blow to the Cubs, but not a knockout.
Not really much of a blow. IMO. He didn’t even hit .250. Joe Panik hit .312
It’s such a shame anytime anyone goes down. I hope for a speedy recovery. I am a pirate fan and I never hated the cubs but I hate joe maddon and his comments/behavior over the Kang. Now I need a new catcher in my keeper league.
Madden highly overrated did not deserve manager of the year. Has no clue.
Yeah this injury is all Madden’s fault.
Wow. This is unfortunate for the entire baseball community, It is always good for the game to have exciting young players.
Take a look at 3 of the first 4 out of that 2014 Draft:
Aiken- Tommy John
Kolek- Tommy John
Schwarber- ACL tear
Stay healthy Rodon! Sox fans wish you well Kyle. Come back bigger stronger faster.
OMG call off the world series. It’s over.
They’ll still score a ton of runs. Don’t be cry babies.
BREAKING: Ken Rosenthal is reporting on Twitter that the Giants have acquired Jake Arrieta and cash for Hunter Pence and a bag of pretzels.
Better be peanut butter filled
I heard chocolate covered.
Same. It’s chocolate covered. #source
Fire Theo
They lose some HRs, but Soler is no slouch. Soler was 12th ranked prospect in 2014. If they play him in LF the rest of the year he will likely end up with at least 70 R 15 HR 70 RBIs and a .275+ BA. If he’s not too much of a headcase going from RF to LF.
Obviously a big blow but isn’t catastrophic to the Cubs’ World Series hopes this year. In my opinion the bigger issue is that I highly doubt he ever catches again which limited him to a corner OF spot where he’s league average defensively prior to the injury or potentially moving him to first where Rizzo is locked in for years.
Hahahaha. Boy that plantar fasciitis sucks.
Wow, that’s a major bummer. It really sucks seeing talented guys like Schwarber lose a whole season at this point in their career. He’ll be on the knee injury radar the rest of his career now, and can probably cross Catcher off of his baseball card now. Here’s hoping for a full recovery, which isn’t always a given with an injury like this, though he’s young and it’s 2016… not quite the disabling injury it was several years ago.
1. This is not nearly as much of a loss as many might think to the teams overall production.
2. I have a feeling this would have been just one of a long list of injuries for someone who was not athletically gifted for the OF. Just so happens the first of what I think would have been many injuries, is pretty much worse case scenario in terms of utilizing a players value. Which leads to my point below.
3. I believe whole heartily, that the Cubs overplayed their hand with this player/prospect. I’ve long felt once it was decided that Bryant would play at 3rd and he would not be a catcher, the only real natural fit was 1st base, which obviously is blocked and likely to be manned by Rizzo for maybe the next decade (who knows). To this day, I’m still uncertain who really thought the OF was a solid option for Schwarber.
4. Tied into #3, I am going on the record to say, the Cubs probably just lost a ton of value. Not so much the value Schwarber would have brought to the team in terms of production/role, but its safe to say he probably won’t be any better after a season off and this type of rehab.
5. I wasn’t commenting at all during the winter, but I so wanted to say 50 times, that his value was at his peak (yeah, weird to say peak with such a young kid), this past winter. A one for one swap for a front end pitcher was absolutely possible and would have been well advised.
6. I love everything the Cubs have done and are doing (saying this as non-Cubs fan), but this is probably the one player/asset/value trade, they didn’t identify correctly and make the move in the last few years. My feeling, kid still has a lot of potential in the future, but he’s totally going to wind up as someone’s first baseman or maybe in the AL as a DH (future Billy Butler type with a much better bat), but that’s just my take..I would have traded him this past winter.
I don’t think a 1 for 1 swap for a front end pitcher (depending on your definition of that) was actually possible. Commentors here aren’t the only one who don’t trust a dude after like 65 games.
Schwarber is a young version of Adam Dunn a DH that will hit 240 hit allot of homers and strikeout a ton
I would think that means Schwarber will never be going back behind the plate even once he is healthy.
Wow. Some of these comments are funny at best,.All the cubs fans saying “it’s no big deal”. I agree.. It doesn’t change whether or not they go be in the world series. They were not headed there anyway.. Cubs fan have become the worst, most overrating fan base of any fan base in baseball. It’s pretty pathetically crazy. Cubs have not been relevant for such a long time and they act like they are an organization of past like the Yankees, or a more current one as the Cards, Giants.. I agree he is not the biggest loss. They have a few better players than him. He is the most cub awful defensive outfielder on the planet. He hit’s Homers. That what he does. He is no different than,say, a Joey Gallo, who gets less talk and could easily end up better.. The cubs could make the playoff but their is just a good a chance they won’t. I mean their’s still a lot of “what ifs” on that team. You think you can plug in one of your 200 top 5 prospects, HaHaHa. You might be luck if one or 2 of those pan out. That is life in the show. #DelusionalCubs. Go cards. Go Pirates. Go Reds. Go Brewers. Anyone but the cubs cause I am so sick of hearing about them..
how can you have 200 top 5 prospects?
I guess Chester McGoo up there never heard of sarcasm. Ask your girl what sarcasm is. She knows real well.
triber4life
I agree with you brother….some of these posts from Cubs fans make it sound like Babe Ruth just went down for the season.
I saw this guy in the playofffs last year and he was terrible defensively…so bad in left but probably just as bad at the plate.
Did I miss something or did this guy go 16/43/.246?????
Really, this is the unreplacable piece?
And you Cubs fans….how about winning something before you sound off like destiny’s team or the 27 Yankees.
rocky7. you are now my hero. I thought I was the only one who believed so. Thank your for being real. It is much appreciated, especially on this board.
He hit 16 in 85 games and please tell me where you see CUBS fans saying that this team will be the best in the history of baseball or are hyping them up any more than the media or fans from other teams are? It’s funny how ‘Cubs fans have become the most annoying fans’ is so common to say when the ones that are being annoying about the Cubs are fans from other teams, like yourself. Hell, after years of losing let a fan base be excited that their team is finally doing well again. Since when did it become annoying to be excited that your favorite team is doing well?
Probably just as bad at the plate? Before trying to insult people, try informing yourself fully on the topic. You just sound clueless.
That sucks. Imagine if they hadn’t resigned fowler or did and then traded soler.
That Ross for Schwarber trade is looking real good right about now…
Does this mean The Orioles are the new goat?
This is just terrible. Wish him a speedy recovery.
Finishing last for 4 or 5 years in a row just to get first draft picks was the cubs rebuilding plans. As soon as theses guys tank they will go back to the last place tank where they belong. A joke of an organization. Always has been always will be.
Beginning of the end if Cubs management is a dumb as its fans on this comment board.
Sosa out of retirement
what comes around goes around eh madden?
Losing Kyle will be a big hit to our offensive production but defensively we’re really not losing much. Rizzo Bryant Hayward those guys are going to have to step up offensively to pick up the slack.