The Cubs decided yesterday that lefty Drew Smyly will not make it back onto the MLB roster this season, as Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com was among those to report (Twitter links). Instead, he’ll focus on preparing himself for a full and healthy 2019 campaign.
Smyly, who is now 29 years of age, signed a two-year deal with the Chicago organization last winter after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June of 2017. It includes a $10MM guarantee with $6MM in available incentives for the 2019 campaign.
There had been some hope all along that Smyly could represent a notable late-season addition. Particularly with the problems surrounding many of the team’s other key offseason pitching additions, it’d be nice to have the southpaw available. High-priced righty Yu Darvish is done for the year, while fellow rotation addition Tyler Chatwood has not worked out. In the pen, closer Brandon Morrow is still trying to get back from injury and LOOGY Brian Duensing has endured a miserable campaign.
Surely, with the division race still very much in the air, the Cubs would have given Smyly a look if he was truly prepared. He was able to make a single rehab appearance, but evidently did not respond well enough to make it worthwhile to continue pressing for a 2018 return.
Of course, the contract was signed with full knowledge that there were good odds the first season would be a wash. The Cubs hoped, mostly, that they’d recoup their investment in the 2019 campaign. It’ll be interesting to see to what extent the front office relies upon Smyly in structuring the approaching offseason. At the very least, he’ll be seen as an important part of the depth picture, in the rotation and perhaps also the bullpen, but it’ll be hard to allocate too much faith until he gets on the mound in camp. With no small amount of uncertainty in the rotation mix, the organization figures to face some tough roster questions — beginning with a decision on the team’s option over resurgent veteran Cole Hamels.
This will make Drew Frowny.
LOL
Easily impressed, Jorge?
What a jag…
Get right is upset he didn’t say it. It’s clever. Don’t listen to silly boys
Mauve Get Right just Got Wrong.
I’m sure he’s not Frowny with a 10mil guarantee for not pitching an inning
They signed him with an eye to 19 and were hoping he could maybe come back this year
Going to be a fun two and a half weeks in the central
Go Brew Crew!!!!
You would
In case anyone has not noticed Theo/Jed gave 50 MILLION just this year to Darvish, Chatwood, Morrow & Smyly. People love to talk up Theo but fail to recognize that he has signed some players to HORRENDOUS deals both in Boston & Chicago.
I’m not a Cubs fan but can you really blame them for trying to get players that other teams also wanted? Can’t blame them for Darvish getting injured and there is plenty of time left on the deal where it could still be considered a great deal. Chatwood, yep, he has been terrible. Morrow was really good until he got hurt and still has a chance to help them when it really matters, can you really blame them for the injuries? And the Smyly deal was for next year all along so I would really say they made 1 bad signing this off season. They made up for it IMO with the trade for Hamels which has turned out to be better than most would’ve thought.
I am a cubs fan.
Darvish – dude threw 1200+ innings before he came to MLB. He’s thrown 150+ innings once since 2013 and missed an entire year due to TJ. Between his injury history AND the wear on his arm, I was not a fan of the contract and would actively consider this a bad signing like I did when it happened.
Chatwood – based on his away splits, I was very hopefuly he’d settle in as a middle of the rotation starter. He has failed awfully but it’s not as if this was foreseeable.
Morrow: He’s had a lot of injuries and illness in his career. Dodgers watched his innings closely and it seemed to help. His deal is quite a bit cheaper than the guy he replaced and it’s half the duration. I liked the signing if they watched his innings. They did and it didn’t matter.
Smyly: We knew he was going to be a long term project anyway given his elbow. The amount is minimal for a guy who’s been an average pitcher and gives the cubs the control of his recovery.
And don’t forget the Murphy pick up.
So all of those are bad deals?
If you look at the transaction log of every big money/big market team (Dodgers, Yanks, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs,) you’re going to see an awful lot of that. And it’s not because they’re worse at their job than the small market guys, it’s because they know that they can afford to make more bad decisions.
He also drafted KB, Schwarber, Almora, traded for Rizzo, Russell, Arrieta, Chapman, Strop, Montgomery, etc., signed Lester, Zo (both contracts have worked out great), not to mention, the Hamels and Murphy deals that have been great for us, and brought a World Championship to Chicago in ‘16. Every great GM/POBO has many bad deals. They all aren’t going to work out, but he has built multiple championship teams, in the most polarizing markets. Dude is a HOF executive.
Agreed.
And they’re still not at the luxury cap limit … Sounds like he made an awful lot of good decisions to make up for that wasted $50 million.
People love to talk up Theo because he helped built two different franchises into World Series winners for fan bases that never had seen one and had countless, countless fans not live long enough to see either happen. 50 MILLION to him and the owners is not what it is to you or I. (I’m making that assumption guessing that you are not a pro sports franchise owner). Those that have noticed and only point out the HORRENDOUS without recognizing the other side of it are just trolls.
Well at least he didn’t hand out the horrible dexter Fowler contract. Fowler has to have at least a decent season to make up for the 85 mil he stole.
Whosyourmomma fails to recognize that Theo will be in he Hall of Fame one day for the positive moves he makes. Sorry dude people realize the mistakes too, as does Theo but why do you not recognize what he has done in both Boston and Chicago
All of the good and bad were covered in previous comments. Just read.
Anyone else notice how Dave Dombrowski will trade away notable prospects and they always get injured? Drew Smyly, Michael Kopech, Anderson Espinoza, Devon Travis, etc.
Kopech was traded almost two years ago ago. Yeah, most pitchers get injured in their careers
This dude is a genius. Gets paid to not work.
Between Smyly, Hultzen, and Webster, the Cubs have an awful lot of high end what ifs for 2019.
Ain’t gonna matter this year anyway. Not looking good for the Cubs. Come back strong next year see what he can do