The Cubs announced Monday that left-hander Sean Newcomb has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to fellow southpaw Eric Stout, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Iowa. Stout will be making his first big league appearance since 2018 if he gets into a game.
Chicago acquired Newcomb from the Braves in April, sending veteran righty Jesse Chavez back to Atlanta in the process. It was a buy-low bounceback flier for the North Siders, but the move didn’t pan out. Newcomb could make just three appearances before spraining his left ankle and missing three weeks. He returned to the active roster yesterday, but the Yankees teed off on him for five runs on six hits in just one inning of work. In the wake of that rough outing, the Cubs have decided to move on, joining the Braves in designating him for assignment this season.
It’s been a few seasons of struggles for Newcomb, who was also hit hard over three outings with Atlanta in April. He posted just a 4.73 ERA through 32 1/3 frames last year, largely negating a quality 28.7% strikeout rate by walking an unacceptable 18% of batters faced. The former first-round pick had been hit hard during four starts in the shortened 2020 season as well, so he hasn’t found a sustained run of MLB success since 2019.
Nevertheless, Newcomb caught the attention of the Cubs based on his early-career form. He threw 68 1/3 innings of 3.16 ERA ball three years ago, showing much better control and inducing grounders on nearly half the batted balls he allowed. While his strike-throwing has become particularly erratic in recent years, Newcomb continues to throw in the mid-90s and drew praise from prospect evaluators for his breaking stuff.
Newcomb is out of minor league option years, so the Cubs had to either keep him in the majors or take him off the 40-man roster. Now that they’ve chosen the latter course of action, they’ll have a week to deal him again or try to run him through waivers. Newcomb is making $900K this season, certainly not an exorbitant sum but a bit more than the league minimum salary.
Stout is a Chicago-area native who’s in line for his first MLB action in four years. His previous experience at the highest level consists of just three games with the 2018 Royals. A Butler University product, he’s spent parts of five seasons in Triple-A. Stout owns a modest 4.93 ERA over that time, but he’s sporting a 3.94 mark in 29 2/3 frames with Iowa this year.
This has been an atypical season for Stout, who was a pitch-to-contact control artist for much of his early professional career. Over the past couple seasons, though, he’s seen a dramatic spike in both his strikeouts and walks. Those trends have reached new heights this year, as he’s fanned an incredible 36.6% of batters faced in Iowa but also doled out free passes at a nearly 17% clip. That’s something of a similar profile to Newcomb, but Stout still has a pair of options remaining and can move on and off the active roster.
Oops. Newcomb was an Angels top prospect. Confirms how inaccurate the baseball pundits are on ranking prospects.
Wat?
Baseball prospects are more difficult to predict than prospects in any other sport. And it’s not like the Angels farm has been stacked in recent years.
I think we agree.
He pitched all of 33 games in the Angels’ system before being traded to the Braves so I’m unclear on the mention of the Angels. He then came up and was a league average-ish pitcher before the league caught up with him (and he seemingly lost all semblance of control on his pitches). There were also a lot of reports about his lack of focus and maturity impacting his development.
Ultimately I’m not sure what your point is. Scouts are rating and grading these kids years out from the bigs and inevitably some are going to improve and some are not for all kinds of reasons. It has more to do with tools than it does with a final, polished product of a player. If your point is to say scouts get it wrong a lot, well yeah, they do, but what’s the alternative? Your take completely ignores the fact that there’s far more to the story. I would have also thought a lefty throwing in the mid-90s with some decent breaking stuff who could repeat his mechanics and hold his velocity over 100+ pitches was a decent bet to take in the first round. What happens from there has almost nothing to do with “pundits” and rankings. Go look at every single top prospects list from ANY sport or go and look at outcomes for players drafted in the first round and let us know what the hit rate looks like. Spoiler: it’s going to be a LOT more miss than hit. The vast majority of players chosen in the first round have even less notable careers than Newcomb has but, again, solid point.
Hey Crab. Thanks for the response. It appears you put too much thought and analysis into my comment. Simply put, as you also said, Newcomb is another among many examples of the experts rating a prospect high resulting in poor results. I think it does the youngster a disservice by setting expectations that they are not able to meet. Cheers.
Newcomb came within 1 out of pitching a no-no vs the Dodgers.
The talent is there, I think the Braves rushed him to the Majors as a starter and with a short leash they tried to make him a reliever.
He was also, at times, an excellent reliever. But he would lose control specially after pitching back to back games or with 1 day of rest.
TL;DR Newcomb didn’t get a fair shot as a starter, and doesn’t seem to have the build to be a reliever.
Still only 29 , I hope he can just work on his control and make it back to the majors. He showed some flashes early on with the Braves , wish him well. I think relief is his forte.
I agree doxie. It just seems by all previous reports Nuke still wants to be a SP. He needs to follow in Andrew Chafin’s footsteps and embrace being a relief pitcher. I’m reality he needs time in AAA to work on his pitching. It’s like the guy forgot how to pitch.
Well, that trade ended up being a wash for both teams.
As always, we await developments.
In a twist of fate, he played on the Cubs this season with the guy he was traded for.
Andrelton Simmons is slashing .163/.180/.163 with an OPS+ of -2 this year for the Cubs and has three fewer grounded into double plays (5) as he does total bases (8) while having one more batter faced (9) than he does hits (8).
No one tell prov356 but Simmons was also a top 100 prospect at one time (!). I guess the pundits and rankings ARE always wrong!
Which trade? Chavez is pitching pretty well for the Braves if that’s the one you are referring too?
Dodgers should take a look at this guy.
And then look away immediately after.
3 years of Indy Ball and a 10.19 ERA for Miami’s AAA last season, good for Stout
Jesse Chavez is doing good for the Braves.
Why not Menez who is actually doing well at AAA? Curious. Sounds like another Chi Chi Rodriguez move to let him pitch one game and then DFA the guy. Seems cruel but like I said, The Cubs need to move people up the system to clear the decks for ACL promotions as the old dead weight prospects need to go.
Stout’s a great story. Rooting for the guy.
Angels?
Yes now that As are worst in the league they can grab this stud muffin
Rays? Rox? (Bud Black works some miracles.) Newcomb hasn’t been the same since he almost threw a no-hitter four years ago.
Orioles will grab him.
As an owner?
If you want to take a spin with morons check into the Tigers board on Rodriguez. Wow. I think I need a shot of tequila but I don’t drink.
A reclamation project for a team in need of pitching. He had some promise but has fallen into bad habits.
I’m buddies with Eric Stouts dad, good for him