Valaika reminds of Jose Macais. Dude can play a lot of positions but his bat will be Darwin Barney-esque. The Cubs have enough flexibility with guys like Coghlan, Alcantara, Valbuena, Baez, Ruggiano, etc. that they don't need to carry a no hit multi-position guy like Valaika.
I can see that. But flexibility give more AB's with days off. VS what we have now. Lake getting shafted with AB's same with Olt. Barney was in that boat. All had the short stick in a platoon.
That is wasted roster spaces. Sure I can see saving a buck in LF with Cog and Ruggiano next year so they can use that savings into Lester. That makes sense. But having LF, RF, 3B, 2B, CF in platoon at the start of the year? What a bad idea in general.
Cubs had that mix in 2008. Had DeRosa who could play RF when Fukudome was slumping. Also he covered 3B. 2009 would not have been so bad if they retained him. A-Ram goes down DeRosa covers 3B. Easy fix til A-Ram got back. Big screw up and on top of it they let whats his face go and the crew picked him up.
Don't under sell flexibility.