Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Moisés Ballesteros finally arrives at Cubs camp following a visa issue

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed the latest Cubs storylines coming out of spring training, including designated hitter Moises Ballesteros arriving after being delayed due to a visa issue.

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Middays 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Canisrell swings at that one in the dirt, swings and misses, catcher Herrera, throws it over to first for Nick Prado, and he is out. And that will end your ball game. The Cubs do not come back and get a win. They trail and lose to the Rangers by the score of 3 to 2. Matt Spiegel on the call. are underway with spring training in Mesa, Arizona.

And it was nice to hear our friend Matt Spiegel on the call. We were a little worried about whether or not his voice was going to be A-OK and spick and span. But he went out there and he did a great job. Rested up, much like the Cubs. Rested up. 0 in 3 this spring. You know who's 3 in 0 this spring? Yeah, your team.

White Sox. The Mighty White Sox. Go White Sox. What does it all mean? And now somebody will come up with a statistic that the White Sox. Sox were like 3 and 16 when they won the World Series in 2005. That's fine. 85 bears were winless before they won the Super Bowl.

To dash all your dreams. Why do I hear you saying that in Hawk Harrelson voice? Let me tell you about that. Let me tell you about 2005. Yeah, White Sox were three and no. You know, that's good. Let me tell you about Cliff Polite. A lot of people don't know about Cliff Polite.

I know about softball. But 16-inch softball. And while I don't put much stock into a spring training for veterans. How dare you? Or B. Spring training record. How dare you? What I do put some stock into is who needs spring training the most?

You know, like, for example, Mune Takamurakami, you want to get him as many spring training at bats as possible because he's got to go to Japan for the World Baseball Classic. We get more international competition, guys. That's a good thing. Team USA. Did you see George Springer, by the way? He took batting practice in the Team USA jersey

after watching the game in the clubhouse and he just wanted to celebrate America. even though he plays for, you know, Canada's team in baseball. Well, that's okay. Is there surfing in the Summer Olympics? Yes. Yeah. Has there been in the past?

I don't know. It was in Tahiti this past Olympiad. Oh, it was? Yeah, and then some whale decided to get it and have fun, and then they did a little breach. Oh. I don't know how many years they've been doing it. But yes, they've been doing so. I heard them pre because they did the whole preview of L.A., what is it, 26?

Flag football. Here it comes. We're in 26. Yeah. 28. Yes. Flag, flag, flag football. Squash.

Here we go. L.A. Baby. spread out all over the place, too, just the way they did. Just don't let Raygun break dance, and I'm pretty good. Oh, man. And I liked it when they had Olympic baseball, by the way, but that's a story for another day. Unfortunately, part of, you know, that's the fun part of talking about the Olympics

is discussing travel and learning about other countries' traditions with sports, and similar to the World Baseball Classic. Unfortunately, there's the other side of it, you know, the bureaucratic red tape that it sometimes takes, not just to play or compete for your country, but to do your job. And Moises by Astero's, unfortunately, had that issue. He managed to travel to Colombia from Venezuela. We know there is political unrest that is going on there amid visa issues that had delayed his arrival. Reportedly, the Cubs tried to get this going for him, this process, in January. But unfortunately, he wasn't able to arrive until this past weekend. So on Sunday,

Moises was ready and ready to get back to work. That begins, a bigger discussion. Where does Moises Bayosteros bat as we try to figure out the jigsaw puzzle that is this Cubs light up and really positions on the field? How are they factoring him in? The thing that I took away from what was talked about, understand, Byesteros still relatively young. He's 22 years old.

I think even though it was kind of a flash in the pan situation, like he's going to be a rookie this year. He can win rookie of the year in the National League. That's how few actual plate appearances he had. had last season. And we know he's a DH. We know he's, in theory, a catcher, but that his catching was not up to par through the Cubs Lens, Craig Counseling Company. And so now he's going to get all this time behind the plate because Miguel Amaya's headed to the World Baseball Classic. And he's also going to get time at first base, which I thought was interesting. So now

you're talking about a possible insurance policy. And in my thought process as he starts, because remember, this is a guy who was trapped between countries in that he got to Columbia and was stuck there for a week and a half trying to get through his visa issues, but he found a local stadium near his hotel to at least get some workouts in while he was waiting to see if he could get through.

Is he going to be a guy that is definitely in the everyday lineup or is there a chance he could not be on the major league roster to start the season? And that's the pickle here, guys, is trying to figure out. who's at bats really when it comes to the jigsaw puzzle of shaw by asteris for example say a Suzuki if you want i want say in the hitting every day but say it wants to play in the outfield as we know the cubs just added by the way to this mix michael conforto who was a big name of meth's fame and somebody who the cubs had wanted for a while

that was according to john hayman at one a m this morning just in case you wanted to go to sleep So Conforto is supposedly in this mix as well when you talk about insurance policies. So that's the whole puzzle of spring training to me. It's trying to figure out where Matt Shaw fits in, trying to figure out where Moiseses-Biosteros fits in. When you hear that catcher in first base are part of Biosteros's responsibility, does that mean he's the third catcher? You know, like, for example, think about all the Cubs had to go through once Amaya went down last year. So how does this all fit together in a way that that, that, A, answers any questions, or B, what are the questions to begin with?

Bia Starros just screams hitter. That's it. Like, not, do you guys see him playing more than 30 to 40 games at any position on a major league diamond this year? And I know what you're saying, that he's going to get the catcher thing. That does not sound like something that would actually happen. Yes, he's going to, with Amaya being gone, yes, he's going to get opportunities. I would be shocked if we see Byron.

diasteroes at any time in a season in which the Cubs are expected to win, playing any real serious time at catcher, at first base. God forbid the outfield, he just seems like one of them. And he can make a really nice major league career out of just being a hitter. So I rule him out when I think about defense. Say Suzuki played, what, 30 to 32 games last year in the outfield at all last year? We know that Matt Shaw has never played the outfield. Conforto is a flyer, right?

We don't even know if he's going to make the team. So it's a no call right now. And I don't know that there's somebody who moves ahead of, I guess Sayah, in terms of like playing the outfield. But we all know that that can be an adventure at times. What I love about it is that this feels like actual competition. You know, if you live by the words iron sharpens iron, this seems like an opportunity for Craig Counsel to get a comprehensive look.

at the players on this team. Now I know Seyosuzuki's going to be spinning a chunk of what would be spring training at the World Baseball Classic, but let's be honest, that's real competition these days. This World Baseball Classic is not like the original examples of what you had when you talked about international competition. The U.S. has been passed up. You could argue by Japan in terms of top of the top. And so I want to know what they glean from Moises Biosteros's and Matt Shaw's

performances defensively more than anything else. That's what I want to know. That's probably my biggest question in spring training is, where are those two guys going to actually play when they're in the lineup? Well, and also is it like how you constructed your pitching setup for the playoffs where you're just like, okay, I know this guy's good at this part of the game at this time. I know he's good for about X amount of appearances or X, yeah. Is it that dire where you're having?

to try to make stuff work. Now, Bruce Levine was on with Zach Zademan and David Hall this morning, and he led us into where the Cubs want to fit by Astero's as far as the lineup is concerned. Well, counsel said yesterday he will both play first base and catch during spring training. So they already know he can dh. You don't have to practice that, right? Nobody practices being a d.H. But he will get time at first base.

With a mile away for a while for the WBC, he'll get plenty of time to catch. And so that is a good sign. He looks like he's in good condition. And it's really hard to tell. This is not being funny. But because he has such a squat body, it's hard to tell exactly if he's underweight, if he's overweight. It's very difficult to say, but

he looks like he's in good shape. He talked to us yesterday about the trip, which was crazy, then he had to go to Colombia from Venezuela to get to the United States. Yeah, what happened, Bruce? Well, his visa

his passport had run out, and he tried this, you know, with the political things that are going on between the two countries here, he had a hard time getting a new passport. So, you know, your passport runs out. Then you have two things.

You have to get your passport renewed and then get a visa. And this turned out to be extraordinarily difficult for him. They were talking, he said they were talking about bringing him in January. And this is the difficulty he's had since that time trying to get into campus. You would think of it, a young hitter who showed very well. in the last part of the year and in the playoffs said you don't want him to get to camp early, start working on his

skills as a catcher. And they did. And he gave the Cubs credit for doing everything they could to get him there. It just didn't work out. So that was Bruce Levine on this morning with David Hahn, Zach Zadman. Now, Bruce is also

very much on top of how he feels like the Cubs are going to use Matt Shaw. So let's hold the thought because we're a bit late to the segment because of Catherine Tappen joining us from Milan. And we will hear from Bruce on that and then also trying to figure out if a plan is a little bit more in place now that Biosteros is actually here. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score.