The biggest mystery was solved on Wednesday, when the Chicago Cubs officially named their starting rotation for the upcoming NLDS, but there's one question left to be answered. We know Kyle Hendricks will start Game 1, while Jon Lester and Jose Quintana follow and if needed Jake Arrieta in Game 4.
Yet, the last player on the 25-man roster may be from a trade earlier this season and his name isn't Justin Wilson.
First, let's look at the locks to make the roster.
Infield: Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Ben Zobrist, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, Tommy La Stella, Willson Contreras, Alex Avila.
Outfield: Jason Heyward, Jon Jay, Albert Almora Jr., Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ
So far that's 13 guaranteed roster spots and I'll add the five starting pitchers too as locks. So yeah, that means John Lackey in the bullpen. As for the rest of the bullpen...Relievers: Wade Davis, Carl Edwards Jr., Pedro Strop, Mike Montgomery, Brian Duensing, Hector Rondon.
If you don't think Rondon is on, Maddon brought him up by name earlier this week aside from Davis, Edwards Jr. and Montgomery.That leaves us with one spot left and right now Wilson, who was brought to the Cubs to potentially be an option at closer for 2018, isn't guaranteed to get on the NLDS roster. Justin Grimm has pitched in the postseason for the Cubs before, but we might see Leonys Martin as the 25th man on the roster. Despite René Rivera's success since joining the Cubs, Joe Maddon pointed out how Kyle Schwarber can catch when discussing the roster earlier this week, so you can't really picture Rivera making it behind Contreras and Avila. Meanwhile, Wilson has been a disaster after the trade with the Detroit Tigers and as recent as last week Maddon pulled him from a game against the St. Louis Cardinals in the middle of an at-bat after he walked a hitter and fell behind the second 2-0. Not great to see when Wilson was supposed to give the bullpen a boost and be a reliable late-inning arm behind Davis. So, why Martin? Well, he plays excellent defense, and gives the Cubs another pinch-runner option. You could argue that the Cubs already have guys like Happ or Almora that could be used late in games to run, but with Martin, Maddon can afford to burn him as solely a base runner and still have the option to go with the better offensive player to then take over the rest of the game if it's close and extra innings are a possibility. Or you can have more flexibility to use a guy like Happ and still have an extra outfielder in Martin. And hey, Martin loves the big moments too.
The rosters will be known on Friday morning before Game 1 at night against the Washington Nationals.#Cubs Leonys Martín just eliminated the Cardinals from playoff contention with this catch 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 pic.twitter.com/AD0JiDpci5
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) September 29, 2017
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