Nico Hoerner could benefit from Cubs’ quiet offseason

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. And out of those three it seems Hoerner might be the front runner, especially after what he did last season.

Hoerner appeared to speed up his timetable to the big leagues after he skipped over Class AAA Iowa to fill in for the injured Javier Baez last September. In 20 major-league games, the 22-year-old Stanford grad hit .282 (22-for-78) with three home runs and 17 RBI.

Hoerner doesn’t know what the team has planned for him this season, though he has a right to be optimistic.

“I feel like I can do a lot of things,” Hoerner said Thursday at a Cubs Charities event. “I definitely feel like I’m in a good place where, as a player, you want to be in a place where if you play well then you get a good opportunity and I feel like I have that.”

But is Hoerner ready to take on a big enough role to put him on the Opening Day roster?

“You could make strong arguments on both sides, whether he should be part of the club on Opening Day or a little bit more seasoning [in the minors],” team president Theo Epstein said at the GM meetings. “A lot will depend on what else we do and yeah, sure, what type of spring training you have might be a factor as well. We’re not at the point where we’re ready to make that decision yet, but we’re open-minded.”

General manager Jed Hoyer hinted during an interview with 670 The Score on Friday that the Cubs plan to make some moves before the season starts. But if the Cubs don’t acquire a veteran infielder and Hoerner dazzles in spring training like he did last year, then it’s likely he’ll be in Chicago come March.

Hoerner isn’t concerned about where he’ll start the season yet. He’s focused on spring training, which starts next month.

“I’m excited just as somebody who hasn’t spent a lot of time with the team to get to know people in spring training and kind of start building relationships off the field,” he said.