Aug. 30: Estrada has now officially been selected as a substitute player, reports Lee on Twitter.
Aug. 29: Steele and Sampon have officially been place on the restricted list, tweets Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, with Little taking one spot on the roster. Montemurro adds that Estrada is with the team and likely to be added tomorrow.
Aug. 28: The Cubs will be traveling to Toronto for a three-game series that begins tomorrow, though left-hander Justin Steele and right-hander Adrian Sampson will not be making the trip. They will instead be placed on the restricted list, tweets Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. That’s standard procedure for players unvaccinated against COVID-19, as current health restrictions prevent such individuals from crossing the American-Canadian border.
Normally, the club wouldn’t be able to make corresponding moves right away, as league rules dictate starting pitchers aren’t eligible to be replaced until four days after they last pitched in these circumstances. Sampson started today’s game, though Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune tweets that he will indeed be eligible to be replaced due to having thrown less than four innings today. Steele, on the other hand, threw 5 1/3 innings on Friday, meaning the Cubs should be able to bring in someone else to take his spot by Tuesday.
Although no moves have been made official just yet, Montemurro relays that left-hander Brendon Little and right-hander Jeremiah Estrada are with the team. Neither are currently on the club’s 40-man roster, but they will likely be added as COVID “substitutes” and subsequently removed after the series without having to be exposed to waivers.
The 26-year-old Little was selected by the Cubs 27th overall in the 2017 draft. That high draft selection got him onto Baseball America’s list of top prospects in Chicago’s system in 2018 and 2019, though he’s since lost his spot on that list. This year, he’s thrown 39 Triple-A innings with a 4.15 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate and 62.6% ground ball rate.
Estrada, 23, was a sixth-round pick in 2017. He’s spanned three levels this year, from High-A to Triple-A, faring well at each stop. Through 48 1/3 combined innings for the season, he has a 1.30 ERA with an incredible 40.4% strikeout rate, along with a 10.4% walk rate.
Estrada may stay with the September 1 expanded roster, as he has been in the minors for six years and they have to make a decision on him. He missed a big chunk of both 2019 and 2021 along with all of 2020. It’s not like the Cubs don’t have a ton of guys they can remove from the 40 man, starting with Schwindel, Farrell, and Espinosa.
Wow Estrada has some kinda K rate!
It wouldn’t be surprising to see both of these guys stay for the near future. They were basically the next men up for a call up anyway. The bullpen is pretty tired right now and needs new blood. Castro, Espinoza, Newsome, Leiter, Farrell, have proven uninspiring. Time for the auditions to begin. Hawkins needs to see how much bullpen help he needs to go after in FA next year. Wick is Jekyll and Hyde and isn’t a candidate to be here next year and Heuer probably won’t be back til May next year and the only locks seem to be Hughes and Uelmen in house.
Oops, Newcomb. Under either name he reeks.
Newcomb is Drysdale one day and Clydesdale the next.
Castro, Espinoza, and Schwindel all can be removed from the 40 man and nobody should care.
Huer will be back next season (presumably) along with Alzolay. Those are two high leverage arms assuming the Cubs do not want to put Alzolay back in the rotation. I don’t know the time frame for wieck or roberts but man-rod is back. Wick is good as long as he isn’t in a high leverage spot.
Oddly enough. First time in a long time, the cubs have a lot of pitching….
Ross is wearing the pen with his quick hook on our starting staff. We are lacking a guy who can come in and pitch long relief which is compounding the problem.
If would be something if Assad could be that guy for us next year, along with Alzolay
Rest up Steele, we’ll need you for the postseason run in 2024!!
Steele has been good, looks like a legit front of the rotation starter, but the Cardinals will be winning the NL Central for the next three seasons.
You don’t need to win the division to make the post season. They just need to play slightly better than they have been since the all star break. It’s very doable
I’ll be interested to see what direction the cubs go… can they really have Reyes and wisdom in the same line up?
They aren’t due to win again for 100 years. And get the shot you losers.
They should just leave Adrian Sampson there. He’s not worth a roster spot.
You ain’t worth anything.
You, me, and Adrian Sampson. That makes three of us not worth anything.
Hillbillies. Also, the earth is not flat.