Infielder Nicky Lopez, who’d been in camp with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee, triggered an opt-out in his minor league deal and has been granted his release, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. He’s once again a free agent and can field interest from teams seeking infield depth.
Lopez, 30, is a light-hitting, premium defensive infielder who can provide strong glovework at any infield spot to the left of first base. He’s had a strong spring showing with the Cubs, too, hitting .450/.542/.550 in a tiny sample of 30 plate appearances. The Cubs’ late signing of Jon Berti and promotion of top prospect Matt Shaw — plus the presence of Rule 5 pick Gage Workman and out-of-options utilityman Vidal Brujan — narrowed any realistic pathways for Lopez to Chicago’s major league roster, however.
Lopez spent the 2024 season with Chicago’s other club and posted a .241/.312/.294 batting line in 445 plate appearances for the White Sox. That output is right in line with his career marks of .248/.312/.314, which come in a notable sample of 2346 plate appearances. Lack of punch notwithstanding, Lopez is generally good for a league-average walk rate and possesses plus contact skills, evidenced by a career 14.3% strikeout rate.
Metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average both feel Lopez is a superlative defender at second base and third base alike. There’s more of a gap with regard to his shortstop defense, though his middling DRS rating is due primarily to a brutal -9 grade in just 344 innings there last year. Outside of his 2024 performance, DRS has continually felt he’s been at least average at short. Statcast’s OAA has consistently touted his defensive acumen there, highlighted by a +25 mark back in 2021.
He’s so bad, I see a White Sox reunion in his near future.
DJT says of Nicky: “She’s hot.”
“Says of Nicky”..A pretty far reach for a very unfunny Trump joke. Maybe you should head back to Hollywood in search of some better material.
Besides, I do believe political commentary is pretty much frowned upon here.
I agree on both of your points @mlb. It wasn’t funny or appropriate.
youtube.com/watch?v=LoqPxMLvifs
Not political commentary, just hilarious when POTUS 45/47 spoke of male Reggaeton Latin pop Nikky Jam, saying, “She’s hot”. Doesn’t make him a good or bad POTUS, just funny as can be when he stepped his foot in it.
“Not political commentary”…When people have no idea what you’re even talking about, that usually means that you didn’t read the room or make relevant, funny jokes. This isn’t 9th grade study hall you know.
At least we can all agree than Guggenheim spending and development has made baseball more exciting and relevant on a global stage.
Braves need him back
He’d be an upgrade over Arcia
Is it Nicky “Two Strikes” López or Madrigal?
Ray: Madrigal. I believe Lopez is “Nicky Three Strikes “
Wow, he didn’t make the team, with a .450 average and only two K’s in spring training? Does that not show that his eyeballs improved over the offseason? Man, all those carrots and broccoli for nothing…Have fun reading in 2025 Nicky!
Sure because it was way more important for guys like Lopez and Jankowski to get Cactus League reps than real prospects who could have used the reps to get a little better. Because trying to win the Cactus League and NL Central is the goal right? If it isn’t you could have fooled me. I mean the Dodgers beat the Cubs with their 3rd and 4th Starters and didn’t even start Snell and Glasnow and didn’t have 2 of their 3 best hitters and won pretty easily. So all the dreamers who say hey just make the Playoffs anything can happen………Ehh not so much. Another Hoyer Shyte Show is what it is.
You do realize that teams play multiple games a day, right? There are minor league games, B games. Any given player has multiple opportunities at in-game reps that Nicky Lopez, or any other veteran player isn’t blocking them from.
Well said tastee—-so far the Cubs have used 47 different position players and 44 different pitchers in Spring Training games this year..
I would be willing to bet all the “reps” that they need are being taken, multiple times on the numerous backfields that they utilize.
Sure because games in the back fields are exactly the same as playing the real games and facing MLB pitching is exactly the same right? Wow
Uncle–my point is that the guys you are talking about get many more reps away from game action than against a bunch of non major league pitchers that get loads of innings during this time.
Nicky Lopez getting 8 or 10 at bats during games is not going to stunt the progress of James Triantos. Triantos will get many of reps during the spring.
That’s my point.
Cubs need too much to go right this season, PCA, Busch, Amaya, Shaw all need to play like veterans. Their rotation is a crap show but at least we didn’t give up too much for Tucker….
I hope whoever replaces Hoyer picks a direction.
Joke on Tucker? Sarcasm is hard to see in print. LOL Every time Hoyer makes a move I see Moe from the Three Stooges going, ” You know it was my idea, But I don’t think much of it”.
Borrowing a phrase from the other side of town, being “mired in mediocrity” rests on the shoulders of Cubs Chairman/owner Tom Ricketts. Instead of emulating other big market franchises including the mighty Dodgers, Tom is quite content to keep printing money and not invest it to the same degree in his on the field product.
At least White Sox fans have a glimmer of hope with potential billionaire owner Justin Ishbia taking the reigns soon from 89-year old Jerry Reinsdorf. Cubs fans have no such “imminent” hope on the north side of town with 61-year old Tom and his 3 other siblings owning the Cubs.
Btw: There is another “glimmer of hope” with today’s lineup versus the Padres. Nico Hoerner is scheduled to make his official Cactus League debut and is also slated to play 2B. 🙂
A healthy Hoerner pushes Jon Berti to his ideal role as a Swiss army knife utility player. A healthy Hoerner also gives Jed Hoyer an opportunity to utilize him in a trade and that coukd open up Matt Shaw to his ideal position of 2B.
Aaron
Thanks for a useful post!
If you mean in the sense of he’s the guy who hires the POBO to run the club we agree. I have no problem with them running out a Luxury Tax compliant team every year. It can be done but the guy making the decisions has to have a sense of young and old and prospects and FA’s blending together long term. Keeping money for the deadline to make moves, Trading the right prospects for team needs right away and long term salary planning. The Cubs have NONE of that in Hoyer. Absolutely NONE.
Bottom line: Chairman Tom signs the checks and approves all major acquisitions. This is hardly news when it comes to MLB teams or any other big business.
Jed Hoyer was Theo Epstein’s right-hand man when the Cubs finally reached the promised land in 2016. Both POBO’s have had their share of good and bad moves, be it trades, free agent signings or prospect development. Jed played a big part in the Cubs championship “success” and in my mind hasn’t done things too much differently since taking the reigns from Theo. The Cubs farm system has generally had the same results for each POBO, solid position prospects with less success on the pitching end. Theo might have drafted a bit better with Hoyer perhaps doing a better job of acquiring top prospects in trades when the Cubs decided a retool was necessary. Any sustained success still falls on Tom and in my mind he has failed the faithful.
That’s completely naive on your part. If the Cubs didn’t waste money on idiotic contracts like Boyd, Suzuki, Happ, Swanson Mancini, Bellinger they would have the money to re sign a guy like Tucker. it probably wouldn’t let you play in the Soto category but are those contracts even smart anyway? You could have 4 30-35 million dollar guys on your team if you were smart how you blended the youth in to go with it.. Hoyer gets no credit for anything in my book. I think the garbage man had more to do with 2016 than Hoyer because he kept the building from smelling You give the GMINO way more credit than i do. But have fun with that. I’ll keep bleating for his firing until he’s gone and I’ll get drunk for the first time in 10 years.
Uncle, do you think it is possible that the Cubs are not as good as we think they are, and won’t even contend? I know I am a pessimist, but I think the attitude that some have of,”sure, they’ll win the division, but they won’t go very far in the playoffs” is kinda countin’ chickens. You’re smart and know the game, so I wonder what you see as the range of outcomes.
IDK. I think they’re good enough to win the NL Central but that’s it. What do you think they are capable of?
Alan thinks you’re smart, Unclemike. I think you’re angry—all the time. Why is that?
I expect that someone will sign him quite quickly. Could be the Tigers they like multi position players.
Tigers need infielders who can actually catch the ball.
So I’m saying there’s a chance…
He’s better than McKinstry and Kreidler. Put him at third. They have no one else.
Back 30, 40, 50 years ago Nicky would be a regular every season. Defense isn’t as valued as it was then.
I miss those days. Now it’s all about power, power, POWER!
If the farm system is so good, that’s the direction. But it’s not and now the roster is a mish mosh of mediocrity and other teams rejects. That’s Cubs baseball, always has been.
Well it was before Hoyer traded away DJ Herz, Jackson Ferris, Zyhir Hope, Alfonsin Rosario, Cam Smith, let Arias, Estrada, and others just walk for nothing. And all they got out of all that was Michael Busch and gardener money for Ricketts. Excellent work by the way.
I can see Atlanta picking him up on the cheap.
Buckle up Cubs nation gonna be a fun summer and October.