Third Time’s the Charm? Cubs re-sign Nicky Lopez to minor league deal

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 4 hours ago

So now, Jed Hoyer wants to get aggressive and add players to this roster. After doing next to nothing at the deadline, and failing to address the significant needs of this team, Chicago has since gone into a massive slump and has seen this division race get out of hand. This goes to show you the razor-thin margin a successful or unsuccessful deadline can have, as the Cubs haven't looked the same since.

Instead of adding to the Major League roster, which Hoyer should've been doing, he has instead elected to add to the Minor League roster as the organization continues to value depth over the actual product put on the Major League field. In case you missed it with the Cubs dropping another weekend set, the Cubs and old friend Nicky Lopez have come to an agreement, as he signed a Minor League deal with the Cubs on Saturday.

This is the third time this season that Lopez has been a part of the Cubs, initially signing with them in Spring Training before being cut right before the season started, and then signing back with them after Matt Shaw was demoted to AAA after his tough start to the season. Lopez managed to play in 14 games with the Cubs, logging 22 at-bats, picking up one hit, and driving in a run in what was otherwise a tough go of things for him during his time on the Northside.

With no apparent long-term answer for third base at the time, the Cubs elected to release Lopez, as he wound up signing with both the Yankees and the Diamondbacks. Both those destinations gave him Minor League deals, and with no guaranteed path to the majors, Lopez was once again released last week and has now been picked up by the Cubs for a third time.

As is the case with the rest of his deals, Lopez is once again on a Minor League deal, only this time it looks pretty likely that he will stick it out in Iowa for the remainder of the season and could play the waiting game to see if he can earn a September Roster spot when rosters expand. For that to happen, Lopez would need to be added to the 40-man roster at some point, as some internal moves would have to take place for that to happen.

When the Cubs initially signed Lopez in the Spring, the goal was for him to play as many games as possible to see if he could land one of the last bench spots. While not much of an offensive threat, Lopez is a versatile defender who has been known for his defense, and that alone was enough for the Cubs to bring him in three times.

His performance alone during the Spring was a major reason why he was one of the final cuts heading into the season. Still, after he wasn't selected to go to Tokyo, it became a foregone conclusion that his time with the Cubs was coming to an end. Had he made the roster over someone like Vidal Brujan, he would've given them a defensive boost, and we saw how ugly things were defensively at the hot corner the first month of the season.

As part of the White Sox last season, Lopez started the year as a platoon player before seeing more playing time in the second half. He hit .241 across 124 games with one homer and 21 RBIs. What does stand out, however, is the bat-to-ball skills as he struck out around 15% of the time, which is well below the league average, and walked around 9% of the time, meaning he does make contact more often than not.

His lone strong season, which was the big year mentioned above, came in 2021 as a member of the Kansas City Royals. In that season, he played in a career high 151 games and managed to hit .300 for the season. To go with that came a career-high two homers and 43 RBIs, as well as a career-high 22 steals, as Lopez proved he could handle an increased role that season.

As good of a season as that was for him, it was the only time where you can say he was viewed as a starting caliber player, as Lopez hasn't hit north of .245 since, with the .241 average last season being the highest it was in three years. He has also combined for just two homers and 45 RBIs over the past three seasons as he went from being a potential starting second baseman on a rebuilding team to a player just trying to stick with one organization.

Even if his offensive numbers scream Nick Madrigal, which in reality they are similar, Lopez is a 29-year-old who can play all over the infield. That alone is a plus when it comes to late-game substitutions, but when you're historically good at all of those infield spots, it allows him to see some increased time with injuries and other factors.

Look for Lopez to return to Iowa and keep grinding away, as he could be a late-game defensive substitution for the Cubs' playoff push.