Depth Chart Review: The Cubs' Corner Outfield in 2026

[Paul Niemiec]

Image courtesy of © Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

With the Winter Meetings on the horizon, there's no roster that's truly set in stone. MLB fans will see a flurry of trades and free agency moves as teams prepare for 2026 and the uncertainty beyond it.

The Chicago Cubs are in one of the more complex situations in baseball. On one hand, they stormed back into relevancy by making the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and winning their first playoff series since 2017. On the other hand, they relied heavily on journeyman veterans who had career years, and it's looking like a foregone conclusion Kyle Tucker will sign somewhere else this winter. Even with his second-half struggles, the Cubs' offense would not have carried the team in the first half without the .926 OPS Tucker produced through the Midsummer Classic. When a team loses a player of that caliber, it's hard to anticipate the offense taking a step forward. Prior to any big moves Here is a look at the Cubs’ current depth chart for the corner outfield in a post-Kyle Tucker world.

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Right Field

Let's start with the position that Tucker is vacating right field. Due to his injury, we did see Craig Counsell switch Tucker and Seiya Suzuki between right and DH late in the season and the playoffs. As things currently stand, Seiya is the starting right fielder, and that likely will not change unless there is a big free-agent signing. After hitting a career-high 32 home runs in 2025, Counsell will try to keep his bat in the middle of the lineup for the duration of the 2026 season. Defensively, having Pete Crow-Armstrong in center can help mitigate Suzuki’s shortcomings in the outfield. This is not to say Suzuki is inherently a poor outfielder, but the Cubs’ pitching relied on their excellent defense throughout 2025, so replacing Tucker with Suzuki for the majority of games is a blow that the pitching staff will surely feel at some point.

Owen Caissie is the in-house option to replace Tucker that would allow Suzuki to spend more time at DH. Caissie remains the team’s top offensive prospect going into 2026 and will likely be a big part of the team’s plans in some way. In 2025, he only had 26 at-bats in the big leagues, where he tallied five hits, including a home run.

There are two issues with moving Caissie to the top of the depth chart for right field. First, he was never regarded as a plus defender at any point in his minor-league career. He has a plus arm, and he moves around well enough for a bigger player, but he is not the Gold Glover that Kyle Tucker has been. The second issue with Caissie is the fear that throwing him into the starting lineup right out of the gate could create a similar situation that we saw at third base in 2025. Matt Shaw was largely underwhelming in 2025, and outside of a few hot streaks, he looked overmatched by major-league pitching. Caissie has more margin for error thanks to his prodigious power, but banking on a rookie to provide even 70% of what Tucker was in 2025 is pure foolishness. If the Cubs do end up pursuing a player like Alex Bregman or Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami as an upgrade over Shaw, it will take some pressure off Caissie to be an immediate difference maker.

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Left Field

In left field, four-time Gold Glove winner Ian Happ will be the starter yet again. Although he had a slower start to 2025, he still put up the type of numbers we expect. He slashed .243/.342/.420 with 23 home runs and 79 RBI. The 31-year-old should produce similar numbers as he heads into the last year of the three-year, $61 million contract he signed in April of 2023. Much like Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, and Michael Busch, Happ in left is one of the lineup locks for the Cubs in 2026. 

The only other full-time outfielder on the 40-man roster is prospect Kevin Alcantara. Alcantara has been a fixture on the team’s top prospect rankings since they acquired him from the Yankees in the Anthony Rizzo trade. It is seemingly now or never for Alcantara to get his longer audition on the MLB roster, and like Caissie, he could also be included in trade rumors during this offseason.

Alcantara is a speedy outfielder with a strong arm and some power, but his 6’6 frame suggests he should be able to tap into more of it. In 2025, Alcantara had four hits in 11 at-bats with the Cubs, but also struck out in four of those at-bats as well. He is a natural center fielder, but with Crow-Armstrong entrenched there, Alcantara will be vying for playing time at all three outfield positions.

After the prospects, there are not too many notable names on the roster. First-round pick Ethan Conrad might have a spot on this list a year from now, but as it stands, there are not a ton of depth options outside of Alcantara. Infielder James Triantos got a few looks in left and center in 2025, and was added to the 40-man roster this November, but he will need to improve upon his .259 MiLB batting average in 2025, which fell from .300 in 2024. The next-highest prospect who isn’t in the lower levels of the minors is Brett Bateman. A contact-before-power hitter, Bateman played the entirety of 2025 with the Knoxville Smokies. He hit .261 with a .683 OPS in 94 games. He has a keen awareness of the strike zone and rarely swings and misses, but gets on base through ground balls that find holes. Bateman may have a role as a backup MLB outfielder one day, but that seems to be his ceiling. Corner outfielder Jordan Nwogu put up his best statistical season with Double-A Knoxville in 2025, hitting .280 in 368 plate appearances, although his power has evaporated. The 2020 third-round pick out of the University of Michigan will be 27 years old before Opening Day and is not much of a prospect anymore. Likewise, 2021 seventh-round pick Parker Chavers was promoted to Triple-A Iowa in 2025 but only had 15 hits in 101 plate appearances, which was good for a .176 batting average. At this point, neither Chavers or Nwogu look like a reliable major-league contributor.

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The Cubs will need to look for depth on the trade or free-agent market for 2026. Even if they decide not pursue a big name to replace Tucker, there are still players available who can be quality backups in case players like Alcantara or Caissie don’t deliver. Some of the names that could intrigue the Cubs are a reunion with Willi Castro or Mike Tauchman. They could also look to employ a part-time player like Austin Hays, Randall Grichuk, Tommy Pham, Lane Thomas or Alex Verdugo, among many other battle-tested veterans available this offseason.

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