The Cubs announced a series of roster moves Tuesday, placing righty Jake Arrieta, infielder Nico Hoerner and reliever Dan Winkler on the 10-day injured list. Arrieta is dealing with a right thumb abrasion, while Hoerner has a left forearm strain and Winkler is being slowed by tendinitis in his right triceps. In their absence, the Cubs have recalled lefty Kyle Ryan and right-hander Keegan Thompson. They’ve also selected the contract of infielder Ildemaro Vargas, filling their 40-man roster.
Arrieta, 35, has had a decent rebound effort with the Cubs thus far, making six starts and logging a 4.31 ERA through 31 1/3 frames out of the rotation. He signed a one-year, $6.5MM deal to return to the team with which he won a Cy Young Award in 2015 and a World Series ring in 2016. He’d been slated to take the mound tomorrow, but it appears the cut on his pitching thumb hasn’t healed to the point where he’s able to properly throw all of his offerings. Given the nature of the injury, it seems likely to be a short-term stay on the IL.
The 23-year-old is out to a brilliant start in 2021, slashing .389/.500/.556 with six doubles, three steals and eight walks against seven strikeouts through 44 trips to the plate. Hoerner collided with center fielder Ian Happ when chasing down a shallow fly-ball during Sunday’s game against the Reds, though it’s not clear if that play is the source of his current injury. Happ remains day-to-day after that incident, with manager David Ross telling reporters he’s been diagnosed with a rib contusion after getting kicked “pretty hard” by Hoerner in the process. Hoerner tells reporters he expects to be back from the IL when he’s first eligible (Twitter link via Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago).
Winkler, meanwhile, has held opponents to just one run on five hits in 10 1/3 innings. It’s a strong start in terms of bottom-line results, but the fact that he’s walked seven batters, plunked another and snapped off a wild pitch suggest that he’ll need to improve his control if he’s to maintain anything close to that output. To his credit, Winkler has also punched out a dozen of the 44 hitters he’s faced, but this marks a second straight year of questionable command in the Cubs’ bullpen for the 31-year-old Illinois native.
Ryan leads Cubs relievers in innings pitched over the past few seasons and will give Ross another lefty to work with for the time being. Thompson, who made his MLB debut when he tossed an inning earlier this year, is slated to start the second game of today’s twin bill against the Dodgers. He’s a 26-year-old back-of-the-rotation/swingman candidate who ranks 14th among Cubs farmhands at MLB.com, 23rd at FanGraphs and 28th at Baseball America. The Cubs’ rotation doesn’t have room for him when it’s at full strength, but he’ll likely be called upon for multiple spot starts in situations just as this throughout the year, when injuries pop up among the team’s top few starters.
Vargas has appeared in eight games with the Cubs dating back to a 2020 waiver claim from the Twins. He’s spent the bulk of his career with the D-backs, primarily in a utility role, and is a lifetime .252/.280/.388 hitter in 300 trips to the plate as a big leaguer. He’ll factor into the mix at second base and off the bench while Hoerner is sidelined.
Well that is just absolutely terrible news for the Cubs. Hoerner and Bryant are the only reasons to watch Cub baseball at the moment.
Agreed
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Pirate fans empathize with you,
Don’t forget Kimbrel. After that Nada..
But you guys want to trade Bryant & give big money to Baez? What gives?
Because fans are very “what have you done for me lately”.
It’s amazing how many people were ready to give up on Bryant after a poor, injury riddled 50 some games.
KB spent the off season taking 200 swings a day, either off a tee or off the pitching machine up in the zone to re-train his hands and re-worked his swing to get his hands through the zone faster. The result? Crushing everything he sees!
What made the Cubs somewhat more tolerable to watch? Nico Hoerner, because he isn’t an all or nothing hitter.
The last time the Cubs had players resembling that was when they had Zobrist and Heyward. I don’t know what made the front office decide that quality overall hitters weren’t necessary, but man, this front office really messed up when putting together this roster. Way too many strikeouts. It’s really frustrating to think about all the mistakes they made along the way – many of which were predictable – Darvish, Kimbrel, Heyward, trading for Quintana, never investing in middle relief and instead choosing to piece it together year after year, never selling high on Happ or Baez, Chatwood signing.
The one thing I hated from Day 1 was bringing in Ross as manager when the team was on the downslope. Ross was beloved by Cubs fans, and now people are already starting to turn on him. He walked into a situation that was clearly going to get ugly sooner than later.
This whole season just has a very downer feeling to it for the Cubs.
It seems the Cubs went after defense but still didn’t get a lead off hitter. At least the Cubs didn’t acquire JBJ. I don’t think its too late for them to right their ship.
The Cubs have a lead off hitter. His name is Hoerner. Why they haven’t put him there escapes me.
Did you mean to include Heyward w Zobrist?
Funny thing is, many of the same players fans complain about today are the same ones who brought home a WS title. I guess the strikeouts by Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, et.al. back in 2016 were ok? And what of the role of pitching in this swoon?
I do not disagree that this is a troubled roster, but the inconsistent criticisms only remind me of the fickle nature of Cubs fans. Y’all hated Maddon–he won the title and has improved the Angels already; Ross may be beloved, but he will never be the manager Maddon is/was (and if you ask him, he would probably confirm) .
I do
Those strikeouts weren’t as big of an issue when you had quality at bats surrounding them. The problem now is that you don’t have a stop gap for a good at bat anywhere in the order. Who is the Cubs toughest out? Bryant. Then who? You have so many guys that chase pitches. Happ, Bote, Pederson.
Name one guy in the Cubs starting lineup that won’t strikeout 100 times if given 550 ABs.
Even Miguel Montero gave a tougher AB than most Cubs hitters now.
Maddon is a good manager of young players – yes. I think his antics grow old with the veterans. I also cannot forgive him for how much he tried to throw Game 7. I’ve never seen such an obviously terrible way to manage late innings. He was so fixated on getting Lester into Game 7, he pulled Hendricks just because… He opted to use Lester, but never used Arrieta. Chapman’s velocity was down 4-5mph and was throwing flat sliders, yet he left him in there when the other options weren’t great, but better than an overused Chapman at that point.
Boy—everyone wants to criticize Maddon about his usage of Chapman–but it goes both ways—what about Francona’s usage of Andrew Miller?? Seems to me that Miller gave up a pretty big home run in that game also, didn’t he. (check Miller’s and Chapman’s stats from the series–as identical as it gets)
And yes, I will pull the Steve Bartman/Alex Gonzalez card…..what happens if David Ross makes a good throw and doesn’t commit the error on the Kipnis ball?? Oh yeah, the Cubs are out of the inning and the game isn’t close. Lester pitched great in game seven…..you seem to forget that Arrieta pitched game six—24 hours earlier. (and that is where you can fault Maddon and he has publicly admitted it—he shouldn’t have brought Chapman back out in the ninth of game six after the Cubs opened it up in the top half).
@down30
I don’t disagree with everything you say, but there are some huge issues I take with a few of your comments. Why would you say Darvish and Kimbrel were mistakes? Their first years in Chicago, neither were effective. But Darvish’s last 2 years with the team certainly justified his contract. And pretty much the same can be said for Kimbrel. And one area I felt that Theo and Hoyer have addressed with efficiency, is middle relief.
You also say that you felt the Cubs were ‘tolerable’ when they had JHey and Zobrist. Well they still have JHey (unfortunately they can’t move him – signing him for 8 years was the huge mistake) – and they have Hoerner replacing Zo. Also I wouldn’t categorize Rizzo as a all or nothing hitter.
The main problem I see with the Cubs, is that Ricketts will not spend money now. Letting Castellanos go, and also trading Darvish were monetary decisions that Ricketts decided.
What killed the Cubs was the FO inability to draft & develop any pitching at all..
Theo did great with Lester FA signing, getting Arietta & Hendricks who were clearly overlooked with their original teams. Its like Theo & Jed went 3 for 3 starting off then went 0 for 25 the next 6 years..
So does this mean Keegan Thompson is leaving SNL?
I remember when the Mets game was watching Staub and Kingman, then going outside for awhile until they came up again. Staub because he was such a pure hitter and Kingman because he might hit one a mile. We used to call it “the lean years” when the Mets were pretty terrible.
Hopefully, the Cubs can get it going!
Cubs could very well finish last in division.
That’s exactly where I predicted them but caught much flac here for my opinion. It was easy to see what a disaster this team was going to be. So do they pay big money to keep the crap they have or do they go back to their successful tanking ways. If so see you guys in about 5 years.
If I knew either of you I would ask to out money on that claim. Yes, the Cubs are not good right now, but the Pirates own the basement. (Doesn’t matter current record–we are one month in!)
Ok sure the cubs might beat the pirates. Nice to have goals!
Themed…..you predicted them there because your ambition here is to be a Cardinal fan troll and nothing more. You’re good at it. You and a boatload of Sox fans that have mysteriously disappeared are the reason the mute button is such a great thing about the site now. If I want to read only good, honest chatter without the trolls, it’s that simple. I hope Redwine finds you to take you up on that bet.
Trades coming I believe.
Crazy that Happ was the one carted off the field and Hoerner is the one that ends up on the IL.
More playing time for Bote! That’s great news…for opposing pitchers. .
As a Sox fan, I wanted to ask Cub fans when we might see Brailyn Marquez, Brennan Davis, or Miguel Amaya? Those guys look exciting! I think we need another crosstown trade; the Sox have NOTHING in the minors at C (or OF to be fair). Do you think the Sox could pry Amaya away for one of their arms (something the Sox do have)? The Cubs have other C prospects and Contreras is young and already one of the best C in BB so I figure Amaya may be expendable.
Contreras is expendable in a rebuild. I doubt they trade away prospects to try and add ML talent to this roster.
Amaya may be up later in the year depending on how well the Cubs are playing at the deadline.
Davis I believe is probably two years away and I would say the same for Marquez.
Cubs have a much better farm system than people give them credit for, Marquez, Davis and Amaya are all solid prospects but Howard, Hernandez, Perciado, Made, Mena, Pinango are all exciting, very high ceiling guys. Keegan Thompson looked good yesterday against the Dodgers, 95MPH heat and a 90’s slider with good location.