The Chicago Cubs will begin their season in Japan by playing the reigning World Series Champions the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB Japan Series. The series will contain many storylines that fans should be excited to watch for.
However, the Cubs could be without one of their most valuable players for the series and possibly more with him being still questionable to go for then.
A turbulent offseason for the Chicago Cubs Nico Hoerner
The Cubs Gold Glove second baseman had surgery earlier this offseason to repair a torn flexor tendon. Since then the Cubs had been silent on Hoerner’s progress on if he would even be ready to go for the start of spring training.
The Cubs finally received an update on Hoerner’s status with the word being that Hoerner will:
“focus on his rehab over the offseason and be assessed at the start of Spring Training in February to determine his next steps.”
Now a new update has been given from the Chicago Tribunes Meghan Montemurro saying:
Nico Hoerner (flexor tendon surgery) says he dealt with the injury throughout '24 season & most impacted his throws.
Hoerner hasn't started throwing program or hitting & didn't have answer yet whether he'll be ready for Opening Day (in Japan 3/18, 3/27 at AZ or home opener 4/4).
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) January 18, 2025
The Cubs second baseman may miss Opening Day
This is not good news for the Cubs who will need Hoerner to be a key cog for both their defense and their offense in order to have success. In 151 games last season, Hoerner had 35 doubles, 7 HRs, and 31 stolen bases, with a slash line of .273/.335/.373 for an OPS and OPS+ of .708 and 101.
Looking at Hoerner’s Baseball Savant page he ranked in the 99th percentiles for both whiff and K percentage, the 95th percentile for his base running value, 92nd for squaring the ball up, and the 87th percentile for his fielding value. Hopefully, this is just a minor setback and a further update will be given before spring training.
Hopefully by that time Hoerner have begun both his hitting and throwing programs and at least get some reps against live pitching. If Hoerner isn’t ready to go than the Cubs will have to rely on options like Vidal Bruján, Gage Workman, and Matt Shaw to pick up the slack until he’s back.
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