Following performances that were strong at the plate but shaky-at-best in the outfield, Cubs rookies Jorge Soler and Kyle Schwarber have committed to spend the entire off-season practicing together by taking turns crushing towering fly balls to the other who will do his best to catch them without incident.
“Jorge and I would each make excellent DHs,” said Schwarber who was still plucking turf out of his goatee Thursday following a botched attempt to dive at a fly ball in Wednesday night’s loss to the Mets, “but the bad thing about playing in the National League is that there isn’t a DH spot let alone two, so we’re just going to have to get better.”
The young sluggers each canceled plans to spend the winter with family and friends, instead choosing to rent out an area practice facility where they’ll do nothing but hit their patented towering shots to each other until they can consistently make plays with even the slightest level of difficulty. They’re not expecting it to be easy.
“When a ball comes off the bat, Kyle and I have little to no ability to determine where it’s going to wind up,” said Soler, “and with the way we hit the ball, we’re expecting this to be really, really tough.”
Added Soler: “Maybe even tougher than laying off a curve ball in the dirt.
