Is There Enough in Miles Mastrobuoni's Bat to Make Him a Playable Regular?

The first thought was: Why would the Cubs play anybody but Miles Mastrobuoni at third base for the remainder of the year? The second was: Is Miles Mastrobuoni the most exciting player the Cubs have to offer? But once I talked myself down from each of those, I started to wonder something else. Given his utility and increasingly apparent defensive excellence, does Mastrobuoni have enough to offer on offense to make him a valued regular in this lineup?

I must admit, I’ve defied my typically preferred baseball archetype in matters of Mastrobuoni. Generally, I’m a fan of the utility type who offers upper-tier defense even if the bat doesn’t play. Perhaps my pro-Cubs bias has made me more dismissive of it in a higher-stakes scenario. But in those days where we’re slogging through a shaky pitching performance or a lineup absent of any production, Mastrobuoni has shown an ability to jumpstart the heart rate--if ever so slightly. Which brings me back to the original question: Is there anything of value in that bat?

Mastrobuoni has 65 plate appearances at the big-league level this year. The slash includes a .172 average and .262 OBP, to go along with a .034 ISO. His wRC+ is 41. In most respects, it’s an extension of last year. Mastrobuoni finished with 149 plate appearances at the highest level, with a .241 average, .308 OBP, .060 ISO, and wRC+ of 71. I’m not going to blame myself for wondering what the point was, given numbers that look like that. At the same time, though, there are some interesting things happening.

In his first 17 plate appearances with Tampa Bay in 2022, Mastrobuoni struck out six times. It was a 35.3 K% to go along with only a single walk (5.9%). Last year, he cut the K% to 21.5 and jumped the BB% up a bit to 8.7, in a much more expansive sample. This year, he’s at 13.6 on the K% side and an impressive 10.6% rate for walks. It’s all a minuscule sample, but bear with me.

Comparing only the two Cubs years (given the larger samples they provide), Mastrobuoni has a higher swing rate thus far in 2024 (40.4%) than he did in 2023 (37.4%). But he’s raised the in-zone swing rate by roughly six percentage points, and dropped the chase rate by about three. It’s helped him to move his overall contact rate up from 78.8% last year to 82.4% this year. His whiff rate has fallen slightly, while his called strike rate has dropped by about 4%. Some zone awareness and subsequent aggression within the zone are apparent.

It's also important to note that virtually any scouting report you can find on Mastrobuoni from his Tampa Bay days is going to mention his on-base skills. Sure enough, he walked at a 21.8% clip in 2023 and a 14.3% rate this year in Iowa. His on-base there was .448 last year and .361 this year.

There’s also a possibility for slightly more power. His ISO figures in Iowa the last two seasons have read .178 and .183, though it's way, way easier to hit a ball out of Principal Park than it is to leave any big-league stadium. He’s just been working on the ground a bit too much (46.7 GB% this year) to realize it at the top level. He’s making reasonably good contact (38.7 hard-hit% combined in the two seasons). He’s pinned down by a .174 BABIP, more than anything.

This is all to say that I don’t think Mastrobuoni has a play-him-everyday kind of offensive skill set. But I think the approach and contact trends are such that he does have more to offer than we’ve seen so far. There appears to be potential for legitimate value out of the utility role. Depending on the route the Cubs go at the trade deadline, we could be in for the first extended run for Miles Mastrobuoni to show us something on offense. 

I’m at a point where I’d like to see it.