The few moves the Cubs have made or haven’t made this offseason could benefit one guy in particular: Nico Hoerner.
The Cubs cut ties with Addison Russell in November and traded Tony Kemp for a minor-league prospect earlier this week. With Kemp and Russell out of the picture, the candidates to be the Cubs’ starting second baseman are David Bote, Daniel Descalso and Hoerner.
Last September, Hoerner gave the Cubs a needed jolt of excitement after he skipped Class AAA Iowa to fill in for the injured Javier Baez. In his 20 major-league games, the 22-year-old Stanford grad impressed the Cubs, hitting .