While the MLB season is right around the corner, not everything is sunshine and rainbows for players. Injuries, unfortunate dry stretches, and just bad play can take a player that is looking to put together a solid season and turn them into someone who is sitting on the bench or even worse, out of a job.

The sport of baseball can be cruel at times, as we have seen fallout for players from certain situations (like the Houston Astros cheating scandal) in which they have never made it back to the big leagues after having their shining moments. While not a fair thing to have to go through, all players at some point have experienced baseball not going their way.

These following five players have all been in the MLB for varying amounts of time, and their superstar pedigrees can range from Most Valuable Player votes to scraping the bottom of a franchise’s active 25-man roster. Here are five players that may end up putting up lackluster 2020 seasons in the MLB.

Christian Vazquez
Catcher, Boston Red Sox

Even after having put together his most well-rounded season for the Boston Red Sox in 2019, catcher Christian Vazquez still does not look to be the official answer as the team’s starting backstop of the future. Yes, a .276 average with 23 home runs and 72 runs driven in is quite a solid line to put up, especially for a player that had not played in more than 99 games in a season before that, but a one year flash in the pan looks more likely than these numbers becoming repeatable.

55, 57, 99, 80 – these are the number of games that Vazquez has played in the past four years before 2019, showing that an uptick to 138 games is quite a big ask for a catcher on a consistent basis. A slight injury history, led by him undergoing Tommy John surgery back in April 2015, has followed Vazquez through his MLB career, but that is not the biggest deterrent for him becoming a solid, everyday player.

Vazquez was a World Series champion with the Red Sox in 2018, and a year later he was a finalist for a Gold Glove award at the catcher position. While both awards are on very different levels, it shows that Vazquez has been a part of some integral moments so far in his decently-brief career.

As bad as the Red Sox were in 2019, Vazquez was able to shine and show his ceiling as a player, even playing a combined 16 games at first (10), second (2), and third (4) base as the team moved him around the diamond to get him more playing time.

In more than doubling his total at-bats from a year ago, Vazquez also more than doubled his walks (13 to 33) and strikeouts (41 to 1010), which paints a picture of him as a bit of a hard-to-read batter. With Kevin Plawecki signing on as the team’s backup, there seems to be a bit of in-house competition for Vazquez, even if Plawecki is not a serious threat to his playing time.

After seeing huge increases across the board last season, Vazquez will most likely come back down to earth in 2020.

Kyle Schwarber
Left Fielder, Chicago Cubs

Stuck in a league that has not yet taken on the position of the designated hitter (but looks to be close to making that move), left fielder Kyle Schwarber has become the resident slugger for the Chicago Cubs over the past three seasons. Even with Nicholas Castellanos staying in the National League Central division but signing with the Cincinnati Reds, Schwarber’s uptick in playing time may not result in an uptick in production.

Always known as a player that makes a living swinging for the fences, the beefy outfielder that was drafted fourth overall by the Cubs back in 2014 as a catcher, is also known as a high strikeout guy, which has been proven equally as true as the home-run swings over his MLB career. From 2017 to 2019, Schwarber accounted for 446 punchouts across the three seasons, and each of those seasons he struck out at least 140 times.

Ranking in the top 10 is normally a good thing, but for Schwarber and the Cubs, the tradeoff was that while his home run totals always put him near the top of the NL, his strikeout totals did too, limiting his potential while continually giving opponents ways to shut down his power stroke. Defensively, Schwarber is as limited as they come, and while he has become a lot better since making the full switch to the outfield, the Cubs have not seen enough to be all that comfortable with handing him a starting outfield role.

His career-high 38 long balls put him seventh-best in the NL last year, marking the highest he has finished in the league and the most long balls he has ever hit in one season. The Cubs, who are coming off a very disappointing season that saw them miss the postseason, are back to try and make it back to the playoffs, even though their large budget produced next to no needle movers this offseason, setting this team up to disappoint yet again.

Schwarber’s power numbers may dip a bit, but his overall play (especially his strikeouts, walks, and defensive ratings) will decrease enough to force the Cubs to at least consider trading him before reaching his final MLB season of arbitration eligibility in 2021.

Francisco Lindor
Shortstop, Cleveland Indians

Spicy season looks to be upon us, and the take that generational shortstop Francisco Lindor will struggle in 2020 fits perfectly into that category. Commence explanation.

One of the most commonly-heard names that were thrown around this offseason in trade rumors, Lindor has remained on the Cleveland Indians’ roster, at least for the time being. As the Indians look to be reassessing their chances at making a run at dethroning the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central division, they also made some interesting moves this offseason to try and save face in case their climb back to the top fails.

Talks with the Reds were the most brought-up in talks about Lindor this offseason, which would make for an interesting pairing of good prospects for a superstar shortstop. The Los Angeles Dodgers, as they always seem to be, were involved too, but not to the extent that the Reds were.

While the pursuit of Lindor may have cooled off a bit at this time, Lindor’s 2020 season may be a bit of a chilly one too, especially if that type of chatter starts up again. With Cleveland showing their commitment to confusing everyone, Lindor’s time in the state of Ohio may be ending very soon… or it may just be beginning if he is sent to their state rivals.

Consistent as you can be in the statistical department, Lindor’s slide in 2020 would most likely be tied to a combination of outside rumors and inside disfunction on the roster, which is entirely possible. If the Indians continue to operate with the sense that Lindor is available for the right price, then his play may decline if he always has that thought in his head that he will be wearing a new team’s jersey at any given moment.

Corey Seager
Shortstop, Los Angeles Dodgers

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Bryce Harper in front with fire in eyes. Aaron Nola on left, Zack Wheeler on right. Also have them with fire in eyes. Citizens Bank Park background.

Joey Mistretta ·

Not to the extent of what Lindor faced this offseason, but shortstop Corey Seager was a semi-brief topic that was being floated around on the trade market, more when the team was showing interest in signing third baseman Anthony Rendon. Even though Rendon and Seager play different positions and Rendon eventually signed with the Dodger’s AL opponents in the same town, their willingness to potentially discard Seager was eye-opening enough.

The 18th overall selection in the 2012 draft, Seager has been on the Dodgers’ big league roster since 2015, and has been a solid piece in the middle of their infield. However, injuries have forced Seager to miss a good chunk of time in 2018 (right UCL surgery) and a small chunk of time in 2019 (left hamstring strain).

Playing under the lights and cameras in LA can make a good players seem not so good, and that may be a case of what is going on here. But for Seager, his good 2019 season may not be repeated in 2020, due to his potential trade inclusion, as well as an LA team that has all kinds of sights and targets put on their back moving forward.

Zack Wheeler
Starting Pitcher, Philadelphia Phillies

The final name on this list is also the lone name to have changed teams over this current offseason, as Zack Wheeler stayed within the NL East but went from the New York Mets to the Philadelphia Phillies. Having pitched his way to a huge new contract, Wheeler may face an uphill battle in trying to justify that deal in year one.

5 years, $118 million to be a member of the Phillies is all that Wheeler came to agree upon this past winter, which ultimately is a huge deal to give to a pitcher that has faced his fair share of injuries and inconsistencies across his five-year MLB career. Wheeler underwent surgery for a Tommy John injury suffered in 2015 and did not pitch again for the Mets until spring training in 2017.

A long layoff for Wheeler appeared to pay dividends, as he was able to struggle through 2017 but put together a strong season in both 2018 and 2019, which helped him earn a huge contract. However, the fact that Wheeler has never won more than 12 games, never had two consecutive seasons of 10+ wins, and only produced two seasons with an ERA under 3.50 and still earned almost $120 million shows that starting pitching pays and that it pays to be a starting pitcher.

After going out and adding Bryce Harper on a monster deal last offseason, Philadelphia was back at it this year, bringing Wheeler and shortstop Didi Gregorius aboard to the expensive ship, which managed to miss the postseason last year. Anything short of a Wild Card berth will represent a disappointment for this team, and if Wheeler produces a below-average year in a Phillies’ uniform, all bets are off for how this team and its record may turn out in 2020.