BCB After Dark: How much will the Cubs miss Mike Tauchman?

Welcome back to the late night indie cafe scene. We’re celebrating your Black Friday shopping with Black Friday drink specials. We have an excellent espresso martini and a coffee stout that will blow your mind.

We’ve also had a lot of debate surrounding the Cubs’ recent roster exodus, with a particular focus tonight on one non-tendered decision: Mike Tauchman.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a crowded outfield for the Chicago Cubs, especially with Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki not having trade clauses. Add to that the fact that Cody Bellinger chose to do so, and that much of the talent in the farm system is best suited to corner outfield positions, and the logic of not tendering Mike Tauchman and his $2.6 million (is sure to come into play in arbitration increase a little, but still) Salary is the kind of thing that makes perfect logical sense.

Let’s take a break for a musical interlude…

It was a bit of a rabbit hole because it was looking for what else? When I’m gone:

It’s a bit of a rabbit hole because I definitely channeled that version from the show Pitch perfect:

I was ready to make some pitch puns and talk a bit about pop culture. I wasn’t prepared to find a song that was at least 90 years old, probably older. It turns out that this song is a country/folk song that was made popular again by a few YouTube versions with mugs – yes, really. First from the late 2000s:

Next, from a year ago Pitch perfect is responsible for the fact that this song gets stuck in absolutely everyone’s head:

I may or may not realize that I am now responsible for ensuring that this song gets stuck in the head of every BCB After Dark reader.

However, it is the right song for the occasion. The fact is that Mike Tauchman has been an above-average fourth and fifth outfielder for the Cubs for two seasons. And he’s not just a solid hitter, with on-base percentages of .357 and .363 in consecutive seasons with 350 and 401 plate appearances, respectively. He did it while putting together solid defense in the outfield, including a pretty solid center field.

If you actually look at all outfielders who had at least 350 plate appearances in 2024, the Cubs have a pretty clear advantage in this category in terms of their high floor for the outfield. There are a total of 94 players who have had at least 350 plate appearances. Most teams are lucky to field three of these guys. A handful of teams are lucky enough to field four of them. The Chicago Cubs are the only team to field five of them last season (Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cody Bellinger and Tauchman).

Part of this is a quirk of play time. The injuries to Suzuki and Bellinger, as well as a slightly later call-up for PCA, were spread across the bats, leaving them with five players in the category. But it’s not all playtime. Tauchman ranks 65th on this list with 1.1 fWAR in exactly 350 plate appearances. There were three other 1.1 fWAR outfielders who all had more plate appearances than Tauchman: Leody Taveras (529), Jorge Soler (574) and Wenceel Pérez (425).

Now I completely understand why Tauchman is the last man out and Bellinger opted out of his deal. However, I worry that the Cubs may miss Tauchman a lot more than they realize. Yes, they want to give Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcántara, Alexander Canario and other rookies a chance to play for the big league club this season, but it’s not all that common for a rookie to post an on-base percentage higher than .350, or anything like that Playing passably in midfield. Who could forget this gem?

There are only a handful of rookies higher on this list than diving by fWAR. It seems at least possible that whoever the Cubs move into their fifth outfield role could be worth less than another season of Tauchman.

On top of that, I just think it’s gross that they couldn’t sign him to his planned $2.9 million contract and trade him for welfare or something like that. It’s so little money to part with a valuable fourth outfielder.

So what do you say, BCB? How much will the Cubs miss Mike Tauchman in 2025? Discuss with each other until the early hours of the morning. Don’t forget to reserve your tables so that the spot for Josh is spotless on Monday.