Brandon Glick

Matt Franco is a former MLB infielder who spent eight years in the big leagues, including 16 games in his rookie season with the Chicago Cubs. Recently, I was told that my picks for the North Side Baseball Chicago Cubs Players Project (or NSBBCCPP, if you will) haven't been obscure enough. One user and I were chatting, and he lamented that I was exploring too many recent or notable players — perhaps a change in scenery would spice things up around here? Ignoring the fact that there's no way any of you possibly remember Steven Souza Jr. playing in 11 games for the Cubs in 2020, I'll admit that I could stand to add more variety to the players the project covers. Again, I highly encourage all of you to participate yourself and write up any of your favorite players from Cubs history. Any North Side Baseball user can do it, and I'm happy to help on that front with anything you may need. With that preamble out of the way, I introduce you to Matt Franco, a seventh-round pick of the Cubs in the 1987 draft out of high school. After scratching and clawing for seven years in the minor leagues — including an impressive 1993 season when he hit .305 in 130 games across two levels — he finally got the call to the big leagues. On September 6, 1995, Franco made his MLB debut as a pinch-hitter against the Colorado Rockies. That would set the tone for his Cubs tenure, as he made 16 appearances in the final month of the season as a pinch-hitter or defensive substitute. He never started a game for the North Siders, drawing all of 17 at-bats and slashing .294/.294/.353 in his initial taste of the majors. It was evident that first-year manager Jim Riggleman did not have faith in his rookie infielder, though Franco did draw defensive opportunities at first base, second base, and third base. Also, here's a fun fact for you: Despite having the last name "Franco", Matt is actually related to a famous actor that isn't James or Dave Franco. His uncle is none other than Kurt Russell, a former baseball player in his own right. Here's another fun fact for you: Kurt Russell has more Emmy nominations (one) than he does Oscar nominations (zero). How is that possible? After spending that brief cup of coffee with the Cubs in 1995, Franco was traded to the New York Mets shortly before Opening Day 1996 for a player to be named later (Chris DeWitt). Over the next five years, Franco and the Mets had a tenuous partnership, as he was released several times before signing back with the team. He played fine for New York, slashing .254/.345/.359 across 452 games in Queens, though his best season came in 2002 with the Atlanta Braves, when he hit .317 and posted a .912 OPS in 205 at-bats. That earned him a contract for the 2003 season, though he accrued -0.4 WAR in 112 games. Franco officially retired after the conclusion of the 2003 MLB campaign. View full player

I can't watch the game this afternoon. Just gonna have to hope Matthew Boyd continues to be a dude™.

I know the Cubs didn't choose this, but man, these late-night West Coast starts are getting to me. Hoping for a tight 90-minute no-hitter from Shota tonight.

That was an incredible series win against the Dodgers, but the Steele news is still bumming me out. Another win against the Padres would make me feel a bit better...

I would settle for a tie given the pitching matchup

Colin Rea takes his first start of the season agains the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball. Let's win this series, shall we?

I know it's only April, but it would be really nice to see the Cubs take even one from the Dodgers at this point...

I'm not sure why, but he was my favorite player from the rebuild era (not including Castro). Felt like he was one of the few guys the team trusted, and someone everyone always cheered for.

The best free agent pitcher of 2025 meets the biggest free agent pitcher from 2024. Cubs could make a statement with a series win here.

Darwin Barney is a former Gold Glove-winning second baseman who spent parts of five MLB seasons with the Chicago Cubs. Barney was one of the best collegiate players in the country while starring for the Oregon State Beavers, who won back-to-back national championships with Barney manning the keystone in 2006 and 2007. He won numerous accolades and awards, ultimately positioning himself as a premier draft prospect. As such, the Cubs selected Barney with the 127th overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft. He posted strong stats in the minors, never quite becoming a top prospect but remaining on the radar of everyone who followed the farm system at the time (for a modern equivalent, think someone like Alexander Canario or Matt Mervis). The middle-infielder made his big league debut on August 11, 2010, following the team's decision to trade Mike Fontenot to the San Francisco Giants. He didn't play much during that cup of coffee, earning just 79 at-bats in 30 appearances while splitting time at second base with rookie sensation Starlin Castro. However, he came out of the gates on fire next spring, winning the starting second base job over Jeff Baker and Blake DeWitt. He earned NL Rookie of the Month honors after hitting .326 with 14 RBIs in April, ultimately settling for seventh in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Of course, those who remember Barney remember that his prowess wasn't at the plate — it was in the field. Sure, the second baseman slashed a somewhat respectable .244/.290/.335 in 542 games on the North Side, but those numbers are hardly anything more than replacement-level production at second base. He posted a ridiculous 28 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) in 155 games at the position in 2012, winning the first second base Gold Glove for the Cubs since Ryne Sandberg's nine-year reign from 1983 to 1991. In that season, he tied the MLB record for consecutive errorless games at second base with 141 games. He famously lost the Gold Glove to Brandon Phillips in 2013 in a narrow race. Unfortunately, that would be pretty much all she wrote for Barney in Chicago, as his waning defensive contributions (mostly due to nagging injuries) stopped being capable of masking his offensive deficiencies. He was designated for assignment in July 2014, getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers a week later for minor league pitcher Jonathan Martinez. Barney was wildly productive following that trade, posting an .895 OPS in 45 plate appearances, which earned him a one-year contract from the Dodgers in 2015. However, he struggled again, getting traded for the second time in a calendar year, this time to the Toronto Blue Jays. The cycle repeated, as a brilliant post-trade stint earned him a few more deals in Toronto, though he never recaptured that early-career magic he had with the Cubs. After failing to make the Texas Rangers' roster in 2018, Barney retired from professional baseball. Barney is now a coach at his alma mater Oregon State. He is also an investor in the Portland Diamond Project, a group dedicated to bringing a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland, Oregon. View full player

A discussion on the Cubs' strong stretch following the Tokyo Series (and their fledgling bullpen) from Take Me Out To the Podcast. View full video

Austin Jackson is a former MLB outfielder who spent 29 oddly memorable games with the Chicago Cubs in 2015. For most of his life, Jackson was considered to be the premier baseball player in his age group in the country, though he spent even more time playing basketball in high school. Jackson was selected in the eighth round of the 2005 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees, foregoing college to play for one of his favorite childhood teams thanks to a record-signing bonus. Before even getting a chance in the majors with the Bronx Bombers, though, Jackson became a high-profile prospect and was dealt to Detroit Tigers for Curtis Granderson. Jackson led the AL in strikeouts in 2010 but still finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting behind only Neftali Feliz. From 2010-12, he was a triples machine, leading the league in that category (31). He was also an extremely productive outfielder for a Tigers team on the rise, averaging 5.1 WAR per season and slashing .280/.346/.416 with 61 steals. For good measure, he also hit a clinching home run against the Yankees in the deciding Game 4 of the 2012 ALCS. From there, Jackson became a journeyman, as he was traded to the Seattle Mariners at the 2014 deadline in a three-team trade that sent Drew Smyly, Nick Franklin and Willy Adames to the Tampa Bay Rays, and David Price to the Tigers. A year later, he was traded to the Cubs on the now-defunct August 31 waiver trade deadline for a player to be named later and international signing bonus money, Not including of the very obvious winner, 2015 was my all-time favorite season of Cubs baseball. It was so exciting to watch the team emerge from that rebuild so spectacularly, with a toppling of the mighty St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS as the cherry on top. And by God was Austin Jackson technically a component of that team. In 29 games for the Cubs, Jackson slashed .236/.304/.375, filling in mostly for Jorge Soler in the outfield. He also platooned with Jason Heyward and Chris Coghlan, while also spelling Dexter Fowler on the center fielder's days off. Jackson didn't do much in the 2015 postseason either, notching zero hits in eight at-bats, though he did tally a stolen base and a run against the Cardinals in the momentum-shifting Game 2 win in the NLDS. For some reason, Jackson visibly remains a Cubs in my mind, even though that was the stop he spent the least amount of time at in his career. His best years were obviously for the Tigers, and yet I can only envision him shagging down fly balls near the ivy in Wrigley. Clearly, that 2015 team left even more of an impression than I ever realized. After the 2015 season, Jackson gave the Cubs every chance to retain him, though they opted to re-sign Fowler in a widely-publicized move (remember him showing up announced to spring training?). Jackson moved on to the White Sox in 2016, the Guardians in 2017 (when he made one of the greatest catches of all time), and the Giants, Rangers, and Mets in 2018. He never actually retired, and he tried to make a comeback in 2020 that was stunted by the pandemic. Still, he hasn't played since 2018, so the book can all but be closed on an impressive career. View full player

Dare I say it? The Cubs look like the best team in baseball right now. Could they notch another sweep before heading to L.A. to take on the mighty Dodgers?

The Cubs face Patrick Corbin tonight after a 7-0 win against Nate Eovaldi yesterday... I'd like to imagine a crooked number is coming.

The Cubs' right fielder is now the premier free agent on the market next offseason, following Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s historic agreement. How much more expensive has he just gotten? Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Had you consulted any aggregate list of the "Top 2025 MLB Free Agents" prior to this past weekend, you would have invariably seen two names at the top: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kyle Tucker. Well, you can consider Tucker the last man standing, now that Guerrero and the Toronto Blue Jays have worked out a 14-year, $500 million contract extension. If that sounds like an obscene total for a player who has only had two truly great seasons, that's because it is. That $500 million figure is the third-largest sum ever given to a baseball player, behind just $700-million men Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto. However, given the massive amount of deferred money in Ohtani's deal, Guerrero's contract is the second-biggest in terms of present value. At his peak, Guerrero's wRC+ was 166 in 2021 and 165 last season. In 2022 and 2023, he posted marks of 132 and 118, respectively. Those latter numbers are still solid, but there's a huge difference between being 20-30% better than the average hitter and 60% better. To illustrate the point: Guerrero's 165 wRC+ ranked sixth in baseball last year, just a few spots behind Soto and in the company of guys like Yordan Alvarez and Bobby Witt Jr. His new teammate, Anthony Santander, finished 26th with a 129 wRC+, earning a five-year, $92.5 million contract for that career year. Now, Guerrero isn't exactly the perfect touchstone for Tucker extension talks. Guerrero is more than two years Tucker's junior, and he also plays first base compared to right field. Likewise, the Blue Jays star has had higher highs than Tucker, who has earned his reputation as a consistently great player year over year. The ceiling on Tucker is lower—the variance is less—but the floor is much higher. Well, the variance was less, I should say. We spoke earlier this offseason about the two-year peak Tucker found himself in between 2023-24, and he's now blowing even those seasons out of the water in 2025. All of the small sample size caveats apply in spades here, but through his first 12 games with the Cubs (~13.5% of the season), Tucker is slashing .319/.458/.745, with a 233 OPS+. He currently leads the National League in WAR (1.0), runs (13), hits (15), home runs (5), RBIs (15), and OPS (1.202). This is even better than the ridiculous pace he set for himself last year, when he supplied 4.7 WAR to the Astros in just 78 games played. This version of Tucker is better than even the best version of Guerrero that we've seen, which is saying something: the Canadian slugger has a runner-up MVP finish on his résumé. Sure, he can't be expected to keep producing quite at this rate—this would literally be a top-five season of all time, if he does—but it does prove that Tucker is somehow still improving, which is kind of important when you're debating whether or not to pay a guy hundreds of millions of dollars for future production. So, let's readjust our expectations for what Tucker might be able to get on the open market, which he'll almost certainly hit now that Guerrero has set the bar at a height that even a non-frugal version of the Cubs would be terrified to match. In that piece about his peak and contract expectations, I compared Tucker's free agency to that of Bryce Harper's. That comparison might be even more prevalent now that Tucker looks to be on the precipice of posting a season similar to Harper's magical 2015 campaign, but the Cubs outfielder is going to get more than the 10 years and $400 million I originally forecasted if he keeps this up. Sure, being 29 by the time his next deal starts hurts his value. His age will likely preclude him from getting the same length of contract Harper (13 years) or Guerrero (14) signed, but Tucker's AAV should exceed the $35.7 million the latter just received. Could the right fielder push for $450 million over, say, 12 years? Maybe, especially if he's willing to take deferrals that would push down the present value (and AAV, in luxury tax calculations). My best guess would be to peg him at an 11-year deal (taking him through his age-40 season) that would be worth somewhere around $425 million, depending on deferrals. If that comes to pass... well, enjoy him while you have him, Cubs fans. View full article

Pressly has been in the majors for 11 years. There's no options left. To send him to Iowa would require DFA'ing him, and I guarantee another team would immediately scoop him up if the Cubs did that. Now, could they use the ol' phantom IL to get him a "rehab" stint down there? I'm not not suggesting that.

My Luke Little propaganda train is running on overdrive right now.

The Cubs (and Justin Steele) are seeking revenge for that opening series loss last year against the Rangers. Steele could use a good start to get back on track.

A discussion about the pivotal 2025 season in Chicago and what it could mean for the team's brass and young core, from Take Me Out To The Podcast. View full video