The Cubs are in agreement with veteran infielder Dee Strange-Gordon on a minor league contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Rep 1 Baseball client will head to Triple-A Iowa and give the Cubs some additional depth in the infield following last night’s hamstring strain for Nico Hoerner — an injury that could very well send Hoerner back to the injured list.
NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer tweets that Hoerner underwent an MRI this morning. Meanwhile, Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register reports that outfield Rafael Ortega is leaving the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate to either join the taxi squad or the big league club, which could serve as further evidence that an IL trip for Hoerner is on the horizon.
Strange-Gordon appeared in 33 games with the Mariners in 2020 but tallied only 82 plate appearances with a dismal .200/.268/.213 batting line. The 33-year-old was a two-time All-Star with the Marlins from 2014-15, when he was among baseball’s most prolific threats on the basepaths, but his base-stealing and overall offensive prowess have taken considerable steps back in the years since.
The Mariners acquired Strange-Gordon from the Marlins with the idea of putting him in center field, but despite his excellent speed Strange-Gordon never seemed to take to the position switch. Seattle moved him back to second base in 2019 after he posted poor defensive numbers in center field during the 2018 campaign.
Strange-Gordon batted .308/.341/.375 with an NL-best 60 steals in 2017, but his three seasons with the Mariners proved forgettable, as he managed only a .266/.293/.343 output. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds over the winter but didn’t land an Opening Day roster spot and was eventually released. He briefly signed with the Brewers organization as well, but Milwaukee went in another direction for its infield needs, acquiring Willy Adames from the Rays. Strange-Gordon was released the next day despite having batted .333/.375/.500 in 10 games and 45 plate appearances with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville.
Ever since Dee became Strange his career has gone down the drain.
And the Mets shop at the dollar tree store
Complaining about the Mets being cheap after the Lindor extension is ridiculous.
by *not* signing a guy to a Minors deal?
Isn’t the Dollar Store where the Cubs found Gordon? What am I missing here?
Dee Gordon puts them over the top. Solid move.
Cubs fans have to be pleased with this.
very exciting player.
My fellow Mets fans are victims of years of bullying and abuse from Yankee fans here. I still hear “Scrub Mets!” in my head from classmates in 1977 who weren’t fans of the Evil Empire until George started spending like a drunken sailor. So, like many abused, they equate success with reckless spending because that shows ownership cares, unlike the Payson and the Wilpons who were cheap. So, now that the Wilpons are gone, it falls on Sandy for not trading the rest the farm system Brodie left behind for rentals like Bryant or injury nightmares like Springer. They need counseling. Until then, we’ll get a barrage of dumpster diving comments every time the Mets don’t overpay out of depseration.
Kind of like Billy Hamilton to the White Sox.
TLR is the reason Hamilton is decent with the CWS. Tony knows how to deploy a pinch runner/ late inning defensive replacement type player
When you’re strange, faces come out of the rain.
Yes!! Well done Mrtwotone!! By the way, how’s Jenny and if you don’t mind me asking, where’d you find her number?
Hey, this isn’t Facebook you know…
No one remembers you’re name
Another guy who will take up a roster spot without options?
It’s a minor league deal he’s not on the 40 man roster.
Will is future tense.
From stranger things?
I don’t think Hoerner has been put on IL yet, so there’s your roster space.
Plus you don’t have to worry about anyone claiming him when he goes thru waivers. No one wants him.
“No one wants him” sure seems like a bad reason to sign someone.
LOL
All these injuries everywhere you look and a guy like this keeps getting released and signed like it’s all one big game. It would be nice if baseball actually looked out for it’s players instead of just the ones with giant contracts.
If teams had to guarantee someone like DGS a MLB contract then he would not be given an opportunity at all. The guy has made $50 mill+ in his career. Why is he a victim?
Strange-Gordon had one of those nice contracts himself and performed well early on, then poorly in the final few years of the deal. He’s gotten a look with three different teams this year — the latest of which seems fairly likely to give him a shot in the Majors. I’m not sure how he’s being failed by the league or the union here.
Yes he had a nice contract. But he’s clearly a big leaguer right now today. And because of some silly rules he keeps bouncing from one team to another. It’s not because he isn’t good enough to play baseball it’s just silly rules.
Baseball is lame. It’s just lame. Spent too many years talking about making history It’s now becoming it.
he hit .200 and didnt even OPS .500 last year. its really crazy to you that that’s not desirable for teams?
What team do you root for? He’s good enough to play for my team right now today I know that. And other teams know it too that’s why he keeps getting signed again and again.
He is a bad hitter with below average defense. The only reason you think he is worth a roster spot is name value. I guarantee your team has 4 dudes in AAA who can match his production.
Justin Williams sucks. I guarantee you he sucks. If you can name 4 guys on the Memphis Redbirds better go ahead and try.
And Dee Gordon has been just as bad for the last 3 years.
Justin Williams is terrible. He doesn’t hit well. He doesn’t run well. He doesn’t field well. The guy doesn’t do anything well at all. He’s been worth negative .7 WAR so far in 2021.
So no Gordon hasn’t been that bad. Not at all. And Gordon unlike Williams has actually been good at one point.
To say 3 years is lame. Last year was a shortened season. This year its still May. He had a bad year in 2019. But it was still better than anything Justin Williams will do in his career.
Justin Williams is also young, cheap, controllable, and arguably offers more upside.
Controllable? Dude that’s the whole point of the discussion. If Gordon was also controllable he would have a job. But because of silly rules he doesn’t and Williams does.
I can easily argue Gordon offers more upside. Easily. Gordon is a 2 time all star. Williams has never done anything at all. Even in the Minors.
@JP, I don’t understand your logic. Those “silly rules” are exactly the ones that allow someone like DGS to openly negotiate with every franchise. You think he would be better off locked into one organization? Or, if he does not produce, an organization would be locked into keeping him on the 26 or 40 roster? The system could not be any “freer” for a player to pursue opportunities than it is.
Plenty of guys playing these days in MLB that shouldn’t be. They would be even without the injuries and the infamous flu. Yet people still want expansion teams but what is sorely needed is probably around 4 teams contracted to get the competition level back up.
Psst: Joel Peterson, you don’t have to watch. Your point was rather weak, and many have debunked it. Blame whomever you want. But if you really hate baseball, quit watching. Deal?
@Joel You have so much bias towards this one player that you’re refusing to acknowledge any counterpoints others have made. I’m a DSG fan too and hope he gets another MLB shot. Frankly, he hasn’t been any good for a while.
Dee hasn’t been good in a while. You’re fixated on name recognition. He’s just not a very valuable player anymore, there’s nothing unfair going on here.
He doesn’t hit for power, doesn’t walk, and has a sub-.300 OBP since 2017. He also doesn’t run as much, but yeah, definitely a union fail.
The kids that stunk on my little league team always got benched too. Parents were pissed.
I’m pretty sure he asked for his release from Milwaukee.
Strange-Gordon hasn’t hit in a couple of years. Can’t field anymore and his best asset is his speed, which is also in decline. Dee is neither a “victim” and is not “clearly a big leaguer right now”. If he was he would have made the Reds out of spring training instead of them embarrassing their 3B by having him play a position he’s even worse at defensively than his actual position.
If he is back on the juice he could be of value to the major league squad.
Shoot if all the guys we’re back on the juice maybe it would be exciting to watch….
Yes that could be true. MLB and Theo are working on trying to get the game back to some semblance of small ball. Or at least smaller ball, with more balls in play, fewer K’s and more base stealing. Yet until the pay catches up with this desire it may not work. Players understand they get rewarded more for the long ball. In the meantime, I still love baseball. I always will. But I do think change has to happen.
Um, Where are the Mets? They have RF, CF & 2B filled with AA players over the next month. They can’t get some in-shape veteran like Gordon to step in and build a case for possibly sticking around??
Gordon, Todd Frazier, Puig etc. C’mon….
did no one see the article about Puig signing already?
I think people forget that even non-MLB leagues have contracts. I’ve seen Puig mentioned on every Mets article in the last few weeks.
i mean, did the Minor League restructuring render the Mexican League an independent circuit? its listed as such on BBREF, but that may be an error. its not AAA now id assume.
It isn’t that they don’t know he is signed, it is just that they don’t believe Mexico is a real country.
“how is there a New Mexico if there is no Old Mexico”
We see where Strange-Gordon just signed, so if the Mets want to send the Cubs another dollar, they could have him. Frazier’s helping the US qualify for the Olympics. Puig went south of the border.
Then Cardinals then Pirates.
The reality is Gordon has stunk up the joint the past few years; Billy Hamilton WITHOUT the defense. And there’s the small problem of the juice.
If his name was Dee Strange Schwartz, he’d be playing in Peoria. And if Stephen King was a Rays fan, his father would have become forgotten too; “The Girl Who Loved Erasmo Ramirez” might not have made the shelves.
The perfect 8 Th batter for the Cubs till Nico get well
he is what an ancient chinese general once called ‘chicken ribs’. it looks like there is something but there is nothing.
Strange-Gordon seems to be making the rounds through the NL Central this season
Too bad Milwaukee didn’t keep him; I had a Strange Brew joke all ready to go. But he is seldom able to Cream the ball.
Take off, you hoser!
Hey cubs , we are alike !! I also linked a deal last night for some strange. 6 beers, one bar dinner and a Uber