CHICAGO — He’s the backup to the backup, but Chicago Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom sure isn’t playing like it.
“The guy has seven pumps already and he hasn’t been here that long,” teammate Ian Happ said before Wisdom hit home run No.
Wisdom has become that valuable for a team beset with injuries, which is why the 52nd pick of the 2012 draft by the St.
Wisdom has been asked many times over the past couple of weeks to explain his success, after years of hanging around the edges of the majors.
Wisdom’s journey began with the Cardinals, but after just 50 at-bats in 2018, they gave up on him.
So the Cardinals’ loss became the Cubs’ gain, but not before stops in Texas and Seattle, where, according to Wisdom, things didn’t work out because of “performance-based” issues.
That’s when the Cubs came calling, three days after Wisdom was released from the Mariners in August 2019.
“He was really good at the alternate site last year,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer said.
The Cubs get the credit for taking a flier on him, but even their part of the story isn’t without a blemish.
You have to have some humility to realize if someone had offered them more, they would have had them.
Wisdom and Duffy are a big part of the 2021 narrative surrounding the Cubs.
But interviews and attention aren’t likely to keep him from his job, as he asked reporters to wait before Friday’s game so he could take ground balls.