The Cubs reassigned infielder Nicky Lopez to minor league camp earlier today in a move that effectively removes the 29-year-old from consideration for the club’s roster for the Tokyo Series against the Dodgers next week. As noted by Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun Times, Lopez’s contract with the Cubs affords him an opt-out opportunity if he’s not added to the 40-man roster by the end of Spring Training, and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports that he’s “expected” to look for opportunities elsewhere going forward, though Lee notes that it’s theoretically possible the Cubs’ infield situation could change before he can officially opt out when camp comes to a close at the end of the month.
Lopez, 30 later this month, was a fifth-round pick by the Royals back in 2016. He made it to the majors during the 2019 season and showed off an impressive glove all around the infield, but he struggled badly at the plate with a slash line of just .240/.276/.325 (56 wRC+). It was more of the same for Lopez in a regular role with the club during the shortened 2020 season, but he enjoyed something of a breakout campaign in 2021. Lopez hit .300/.365/.378, good for a 104 wRC+, but that essentially league average production combined with his elite defense at shortstop to make for a 5.5 fWAR season.
Unfortunately, that massive success appears to have been a clear outlier. He posted a .347 batting average on balls in play that year, despite never posting a figure higher than .288 in any other season of his career to this point. Lopez’s wOBA outstripped his xwOBA by nearly 50 points, putting his expected numbers more in line with his lackluster 2020 season than his actual results in 2021. Given all of that, it wasn’t exactly a surprise when Lopez came crashing back down to Earth with a 55 wRC+ the following year.
Since the start of the 2023 season, Lopez has bounced between the Royals, Braves, and White Sox in a bench role, having lost the starting job he held during his early years with Kansas City. He’s settled in as a decent glove-first utility option, offering quality defense all over the infield despite a below-average .238/.317/.299 (77 wRC+) slash line over the past two seasons. He has solid plate discipline, as evidenced by a 15.1% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate over the past two seasons, but that’s held back by his complete lack of power. Lopez has just seven home runs across 670 big league games to this point in his career, and his .061 ISO the past two seasons is the second lowest of any player with at least 700 plate appearances in that timeframe.
Given Lopez’s relative lack of offensive upside and options like Vidal Brujan and Rule 5 pick Gage Workman who are already on the club’s 40-man roster, it’s perhaps not a major surprise that the club is willing to risk Lopez departing the organization. With Justin Turner, Carson Kelly, and Jon Berti all already locked into the Cubs bench mix, the club already had just one spot left available for the aforementioned trio of utility infielders. Workman and Brujan figured to have a leg up on Lopez throughout the process due to their roster status, combined with the more flexible roster rules of the Tokyo series that figure to allow Chicago to bring both players to Japan and put off making a decision between the pair until the club’s first stateside game against the Diamondbacks on March 27.