The Cubs placed outfielder Seiya Suzuki on the 10-day injured list due to a sprain in the ring finger on his left hand. As well, right-hander Robert Gsellman has been designated for assignment, and left-hander Brandon Hughes will join the Cubs after his contract was selected from Triple-A.
Suzuki’s placement is retroactive to May 27, as the outfielder hasn’t played since the injury forced to make an early exit from the Cubs’ 20-5 loss to the Reds on May 26. After a few days of monitoring Suzuki’s condition, there wasn’t enough improvement to avoid an IL trip, and Chicago’s busy schedule likely also played a factor. The Cubs have nine games within a seven-day span, including today’s doubleheader with the Brewers and another doubleheader Saturday against the Cardinals.
Signed to a big five-year, $85MM deal in the offseason, Suzuki’s first 163 PA in MLB have gone well overall, as his .245/.344/.432 slash line translates to a 116 wRC+ and 119 OPS+. However, it certainly seems like pitchers have gotten a book on Suzuki, as he had a whopping 1.090 OPS over his first 72 PA but only a .545 OPS in his last 91 trips to the dish. Suzuki’s paycheck and lengthy resume of success in Japan can obscure the fact that he is still a player seeing Major League pitching for the first time, so there are inevitable going to be some ups and downs as he adjusts.
The sprained finger adds another obstacle for Suzuki to overcome, though given that the team was still hopeful that he could return as early as today, he might not miss more than the minimum 10 days. Clint Frazier (just back from the IL himself) and rookie Nelson Velazquez will probably get the bulk of time in right field until Suzuki or Jason Heyward return from the injured list.
Gsellman signed a minors deal with the Cubs during the offseason, and posted a 5.02 ERA over 14 1/3 innings for Chicago since his contract was selected earlier this month. Never a big strikeout pitcher even his best years as a reliever and swingman with the Mets, Gsellman has only a 13.5% strikeout rate over 57 MLB innings since the start of the 2020 season.
Hughes rejoins the Cubs after making history in his Major League debut earlier this season, striking out the first five Pirates batters he faced on May 17. This made Hughes the first pitcher in modern (since 1901) baseball history to record at least five outs all by strikeouts in his first big league appearance. Overall, Hughes had a 2.57 ERA over seven innings and five appearances.
Gsellman really pitched the 8th and lost his job thirty minutes later.
He lost his job awhile ago. He didn’t throw strikes, and didn’t fool anyone with the stuff.
Gsellman is just the tip of the iceberg—-no need to wait until July (or even June). It’s time to cut bait with Simmons, Villar, Norris, Frazier and Hermosillo. They have zero net value to this or any future Cubs team.
Outside Norris–and that is a stretch—these guys have zero trade value and would be much more valuable not taking 40 man roster spots or flexibility going forward. It’s really painful to watch how poor Andrelton Simmons actually is and easy to understand why no true contenders bit on he or Villar in the offseason.
Whether the Cubs win 70 or 60 games this year the result is going to be the same—let’s dump these useless guys now and figure out the true value, if not in Chicago, for Contreras, Stroman, Miley (ugh–damaged goods), etc over the next four-five weeks.
I mostly agree, no need to play these older guys when there is zero chance of being competitive this year. But…I am not sure as to all the distaste for Clint Frazier from Cubs fans. Indeed, he has done nothing thus far, but the guy can rake when given the chance. I think you put him in the DH or LF role every day, let him hit, because he has shown he can hit big-league pitching. They need to sign Contreras long term, to salvage something from those years of good drafts…hard to believe how inept the front office has been the past couple years.
redwine—it’s not really distaste for Frazier—-Happ and Suzuk need to be in the lineup everyday. Even though he is playing there tonight, Happ and the same for Suzuki are not center fielders. There is no room, nor opportunity for Frazier to get any meaningful at bats. He’s really useless to the make up of the team.
On another note, Morel is not a center fielder either but he needs to be in the lineup six days a week now to help project him out–as he could step in at third base and I don’t think Wisdom is part of the next good Cubs team either. If Morel shows enough promise in the next six weeks, Wisdom could bring back moderate value if you think Morel can play the rest of the year at this level without being overly exposed.
Morel can play anywhere which is why he will probably stick on the ML roster as long as he doesn’t get over matched. He is the type of guy you can allow to take his lumps at the ML level because you can work him into the game at a multitude of positions.
As for Fraizer, he is a guy you want to keep around as well because of his upside. He may struggle with inconsistent playing time but after the trade deadline, we can get a better look. We don’t have anyone at the moment in AAA pounding on the door ready to take his roster slot. As someone else mentioned, Davis and Velasquez are both struggling a lot in AAA, I’m really not sure what the Cubs were thinking calling up Velasquez unless they wanted him to see just how over matched he is facing ML pitching.
As always, we await developments.
Frazier is awful. Cant hit or field. Two balls today he should have caught but got lousy jumps on them and horrible angle running to the balls and went over his head. Felt like I was watching high school kids playing outfield.
I believe that the Cubs are more focused on pitching development than re-signing Contreras and frankly the best guy for that is Yan Gomes. I’m not saying Contreras is bad, but Gomes has a presence behind the dish and a way with pitchers.
If you go back and read some of the comments before and around spring training, almost every single on of our pitchers said that they were excited to be working with/throwing to Yan Gomes and not a single one mentioned Contreras.
Just a quick look, Kyle Hendricks, Marcus Stroman, Wade Miley and Justin Steele all have significantly lower ERA’s with Gomes behind the plate. If your focus is developing young pitchers, you want a guy like Gomes over Contreras.
I agree with you on Simmons (hate the attitude and can’t hit) and Hermosillo (absolutely cannot hit MLB pitching).
There’s nobody raking in AAA, even Velasquez, who just got called up was poor with a 35%K rate.
So they might as well hang onto some of those journeymen and hope to build some value off of them.
I don’t know what is being instructed at the minor league levels but it seems like all our guys are striking out at an insane rate, Canario, Strumpf, Davis, Velazquez, Nw0gu, Perciado… luckily, Caissie and Triantos have gotten their K rates more in check as the season has went on… Nwogu as well, he was rocking nearly 50% at one point.
I’ll disagree on some aspects here…
Villar and Simmons both have trade value, it’s just not much. We are definitely not getting any top prospects but we could get a lottery pick for either or packaged with another player. Simmons is a really good defender (although I have questions about his arm this year) and Villar has value as well. He has nice power, speed and can play all over in a pinch.
Frazier should be held onto because he is the lottery ticket type player we are going to be seeking in trade. Let’s not put too much into his struggles with lack of playing time. He’s a guy I want to see after the trade deadline getting regular playing time.
Morel has been a great surprise for most of us. He’s a fun guy to watch play. I think we can pencil in happ, Nico, schwindel as regulars but I want to see what we have out of Frazier, Madrigal, wisdom has value but He’s definitely a guy we can replace.
The thing is, as it specifically relates to Frazier, I don’t see Davis or Velasquez being a late season call up who will lock down playing time. The plate discipline isn’t close to being ready.
Im ready to see steele, thompson and kilian in the rotation… which I think we will after we trade off smyly, miley and perhaps another. I think if any team is willing to part with a top 100 type guy and another solid prospect stroman will be traded.
Im really excited to see our bullpen in the second half and next season with Alzolay coming back and heuer.
That will leave them a player sort for the PM game. Unless the more to come is a 27th
Aren’t we supposed to await further developments?
At least it doesn’t seem serious. Hopefully the sprain heals completely and he’s not dealing with anything nagging upon his return.
I am curious to see how the Cubs handle the trade deadline with their current standing. Still love to get Willson Contreras…… just saying.
The cubs are going to trade:
David Robertson
Willson Contreras
Wade Miley
Drew Smyly
Jonathan Villar
Michael Givens
Chris Martin
Simmons
And have a real possibility of trading:
Gomes
Stroman
Happ
Ortega
A good starting point. Absolutely agree. Can probably add Hendricks to either list. As of now the best trade chips are Robertson, Contreras, Stroman, Happ and Hendricks. Hendricks current line is not that impressive but a contender may be interested. He has playoff experience, relatively cheap and signed through 2023 with a vesting option in 2024. And please Cubs front office release Jason Heyward.
This is why I feel like the Cubs should trade Contreras ASAP (and also the reason I say the Yankees would be stupid to trade for him)
Contreras vs. Gomes
Kyle Hendricks 6.62 vs. 0.63
Justin Steele 6.75 vs. 2.19
Wade Miley 9.00 vs. 0.00
Marcus Stroman 6.30 vs. 4.22
Those are some pretty shocking splits, and except for the case of Miley, they are not one start vs. many… the reason Gomes is so respected is because of his presence behind the plate, the ability to control a pitchers nerves… Keeps pitchers from melting down the way Steele did in Cincy.
Gomes knows hitters, he knows pitchers, he knows game plans and he can adjust on the fly the way Wilco cannot. Contreras is not a catcher born and bred the way Gomes and Molina are/were. He transitioned due to his athleticism and has done better than anyone expected but there is a difference between a guy who cut his teeth catching vs. a guy who, amazingly as it is, picked it up in the minors. Same reason as why the Astros suffer Maldonado’s inability to hit a baseball even if he was given a tennis racked and a tee.
Gsellman, Sampson (claimed and then DFA by Seattle), Luke Farrell sitting in Iowa, they are all somewhat interchangeable and are rarely going to pitch when tied/ahead except in extra innings.
How is it that a guy can’t play ball with a sprained ring finger? Will someone change his diaper and get him back out there.
I imagine he could play with the sprained finger if absolutely necessary/there was no one else to play right field. But it’s not like Cubs are fighting for a playoff spot. Wouldn’t it be best for player and team to have him sit until he’s 100 percent?
Can’t grip the bat well.
They showed him on camera multiple times yesterday. The finger is splinted and taped with another. He couldn’t hold a bat like that, let alone grip it.
The Cubs also brought up Anderson Espinoza as the 27th man for their doubleheader today which is almost 6 years after the Red Sox traded him to the Padres for Drew Pomeranz. He missed almost 4 years due to TJ surgery and has finally made it to MLB. Good Luck Anderson.
Edit: Just saw this was reported earlier.
—and as Smyly walks off the mound with an injury Espinoza makes his debut.
He had a pretty good debut if you overlook his first inning that was shaky.
Imagine if the Yankees singed Seiya Suzuki and everytime he hit a Homer that annoucer would say “see ya”
kind of like the Cubs announcers do????????