BCB After Dark: Why did the Cubs sign Nicky Lopez?

Welcome to your end of the weekend, heading into the work week coffee shop where we’ve got whatever you’re looking for tonight we’ve got you covered. If you’d like a warm chai tea to get your evening going, we can do that. If you’re looking for a shot of something a little stronger, we can do that too.

One housekeeping note, Last weekend we made the accidental decision to move BCB After Dark from it’s Friday night into Saturday AM home to it’s Sunday night into Monday AM home. It went pretty well and we thought we’d try it out living here for a bit. You’ll still get two late week, late night posts — just one on a different night.

And once again we’ve been rewarded for that decision with actual news to talk about: the most Hoyer of Hoyerish signings, a light hitting utility guy [link to Bluesky]:

I need a musical break.

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I couldn’t get this one out of my head earlier and figured I’d just share it here tonight:

Many of you know my day job is in competitive debate and for year’s I’d heard speculation that this song is about competitive debate. There are lots of lines that suggest it might be:

Six o’clock, T.V. hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh
This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)

I bring this up mainly because I went to look it up for the umpteenth time a couple of years ago and realized that Michael Stipe had given an interview where he definitively said the song was not about competitive debate:

Garrison Lovely: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” is one of R.E.M.’s most popular songs. It’s one of my favorites as well. There’s some speculation online that the song is about policy debate.

Michael Stipe: Those rumors are untrue. The important part of the title is “as we know it.” That’s where we find ourselves now. The current vice president described this political moment as an inflection point, which is not quite accurate. But we’re absolutely at a middle ground between two epochs that will forever be considered the before and after.

And I don’t know that we as a country are moving in the right direction. There are certainly things about who we are that are absolutely beautiful. But, these days, you have to really search to find them.

The truth seems important.

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Anyway, back to the truth of the Cubs roster.

Yes, this is the same team that already employs Gage Workman, Benjamin Cowles, Vidal Bruján and Jon Berti. The team that DFA’d Luis Vazquez for Berti last week. Why on Earth does this team need a minor league deal with Nicky Lopez?

I’m sure someone is already firing up the word “insurance” in the comments, and man, I guess. He’s a reasonable defender and the 77 wRC+ he put up last season means he’ll fit right in with the other five guys who look just like him on the roster.

But is there some reason the Cubs need five guys between the MLB roster and James Triantos? I am more interested in seeing what Triantos can do than literally any of the guys I named above. But not the Cubs. The Cubs are like we need to backstop Hoerner with Berti and Berti with Bruján and Bruján with Workman and Workman with Cowles and Cowles with Lopez and then, if we really have to, Triantos can have a shot.

What is this madness? Is there really any difference between any of these guys except maybe age (which is why DFA’ing Vazquez was questionable at best, but I digress). Why are the Cubs always rearranging utility guys on the Titanic?

Have at it in the comments. Don’t forget to bus your own tables, I’d hate to leave a mess for Josh tomorrow.