AUGUST 24: Chicago has formally selected Farrell’s contract, relays Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (on Twitter). Hendricks, who is unlikely to pitch again this season after revealing the presence of a small capsule tear in his throwing shoulder, was indeed transferred to the 60-day IL to create the 40-man roster spot. Chicago also placed southpaw Steven Brault on the 15-day IL with a should strain, recalled reliever Kervin Castro from Iowa, optioned Anderson Espinoza and sent Padilla back to Triple-A after yesterday’s doubleheader.
AUGUST 23: The Cubs are adding right-hander Luke Farrell to the big league roster before tomorrow evening’s game against the Cardinals, manager David Ross told reporters (including Tim Stebbins of NBC Sports Chicago). He’ll get the start for the contest.
It’ll be the first MLB outing of the season for Farrell, who signed a minor league deal in April. He’s spent the entire season at Triple-A Iowa, starting 11 of his 17 outings. Over 59 innings, Farrell has a 5.03 ERA with a below-average 19% strikeout rate and a higher than average 10.9% walk percentage. It’s the first extended rotation stretch for the Northwestern product since 2018, also a stint in the Chicago farm system.
Farrell has come out of the bullpen for 58 of his 63 big league outings, working 87 2/3 innings between the Royals, Reds, Cubs, Rangers and Twins. He owns a 4.93 ERA at the major league level, including a 4.74 mark in 20 outings with Minnesota last season. Farrell typically runs solid swing-and-miss rates, but he’s had spotty control and given up quite a few home runs at the major league level.
The Cubs will need to formally select Farrell’s contract tomorrow. He’ll be the third pitcher added to the 40-man roster in two days, as Chicago also brought up Javier Assad and Nicholas Padilla today. Those transactions brought the 40-man to full capacity, but the Cubs could easily transfer either Kyle Hendricks or Wade Miley to the 60-day injured list to free a spot.
Yikes… really getting to the bottom of the barrel to find pitchers to get you thru the season. As an Os fan it what’ve done past 5ish years. Feel bad for the cubbies. With health and money to spend wonder how aggressive they will be this off-season
Not really, it’s more to do with the 40 man crunch. Cubs actually have 2 or 3 pretty decent arms in AAA with another 2-3 in AA. It’s more of they call up Farrell for todays start then DFA him.
A 5.03 ERA at AAA is worthy of a call up? My lord the Cubs front office decision making keeps getting worse. I assume St Louis will send a limo to make sure he gets there on time
You have to get rid of the slugs on the 40 man before you can call the kids up. Might as well get one last start out of them before the DFA.
They definitely need to start trimming the fat on the 40 man. I don’t think it will be a massive problem next year but it’s coming.
Jays fan here. I hear you. We called up Thomas Hatch for a start this year. His AAA ERA was almost 6. He didn’t get out of the 2nd inning.
Well at least this will be Farrell’s last start before his DFA. I think we saw the last of Sampson last night as he can’t be sent down without being DFA’d and the weeding begins. The Cubs staff is beat down with 19 games in 20 days. The wear and tear is showing.
Sampson has been a decent pitcher this season tho…idk why they would DFA him when they already can’t fill a 5 man rotation
They already DFA’d him once this year and Seattle claimed him. Then Seattle DFA’d him and he came back. He’s not in the long range plans and the Cubs have Steele, Stroman, Smyly, Asad and 2 more candidates at AAA in Killian and Wesneski that they have to get some starts this year. There’s only 6 weeks left so right now it’s all about making 40 man spots and moving guys up through the system. I don’t know if the Cubs will sign a P in FA or not this off season but they could. Schwindell, Rivas, Hermisillo, well let’s just say there’s a ton of dead weight to lose off the 40 man and they have to add some of these young guys so they are not eligible for the Rule 5 draft in the Winter. Sampson I mean. Farrell is just dead weight anyway. Plus Thompson and Alzolay could be back as Alzolay is Pitching again.
Agree IA—they just hit a patch where they have played a bunch of games in row, had a weird number of extra inning games and coincidentally just traded their best three or four bullpen arms three weeks ago. Of course there is going to be wear and tear. But, who cares—they are not competing for a division title–they are working towards next year.
In my mind they should get every inning out of guys NOT going to be here next year—Leiter Jr,, Newcomb, Smyly (probably), Brault, and anyone on the shuttle. The guys that are really going to be part of the staff are the guys they traded for. The list now is pretty irrelevant, other than finding one, maybe two diamonds in the rough.
Shutdown Keegan for the rest of the year—very strict limits going forward on Steele, Uelmen, Hughes etc….consider shutting them down in early September.
The difference between 65 and 72 wins is meaningless.
And I know it sounds crazy to shut down the staff that has been second best ERA in baseball since the all star game—but I am sure they are monitoring all of it.
40 man moves that can be made today.
Put Hendricks on 60 day if he’s not gonna pitch this year
Espinoza- Really hasn’t impressed me
Leiter Jr.
Miley
Mills- Sorry he smells
Rivas
Schwindel
Hermisillo
Ortega
Heyward is on 60 day so he really doesn’t count anyway
Bote can go but probably won’t at least this year anyway.
Killian is already on 40 so you don’t have to clear a spot to bring him up
Lot’s of 40 man space available to be had IMO
Thoughts?
ESPINOZA- Agree, nothing I’ve seen so far has been that impressive. Injuries hurt this kid’s potential.
LEITER JR. – AAAA guy. You could do worse, but he’s serving his purpose for this team. He can go multiple innings and spot start, which really is his only value.
MILEY- I like Miley. Obviously he’s been hurt and hasn’t provided any value to us this year. While I imagine he’s gone after this year, he’s a decent pitcher when healthy, and wouldn’t be bad 4-5.
MILLS- Time to go.
RIVAS- Can play 1B and the corner OF spots. Ehh. Nothing to see here.
SCHWINDEL- Great story last year, and they certainly gave him a shot this year to keep it goin’. Sadly, he turned back into a pumpkin. Probably a solid Asian league player, or AAAA guy here, who can come up when someone is injured.
HERMOSILLO- Career minor league/depth guy. Had some intrigue and we haven’t got to see him a ton, but what I have seen, I haven’t been impressed.
ORTEGA- Has done his job the last 2 years. Was never going to be a star and wasn’t a kid when we got him. Guy IS a major league player in my opinion, just a 4-5, not a starter. Hits for a little power, runs well, and won’t hurt you anywhere in the OF. We just have too many kids we need to see right now to keep giving him at bats.
BOTE- A guy who probably would be gone if he didn’t sign that strange contract. I imagine he’s back next year as a bench guy. Could do worse, could certainly do better.
HEYWARD – Thanks for the speech in ‘16. I can’t think of anything else to say about his tenure. Nice guy. See ya later.
KILLIAN- Certainly wasn’t impressive in round one, but a lot of upside with him. Would like to see him a little more before the season ends.
There is no reason for this……no good reason.
They need someone healthy and rested to start a game for them. Seems like a good reason to me. I doubt Farrell sticks with the team for the remainder of the season but stranger things have happened.
I know but this is getting bad.
Farrell did quite well last night! Looks like he’s earned at least one more big league start, especially after shutting down a red-hot Cardinal’s offense over 4+ innings. Baseball is an interesting sport for sure; you never know what can happen on a given night.
Ricketts essentially apologizes and says Cubs fan deserve a better product… and then we watch Leiter and now Farrell. SMH.
Hi!
Is it ‘should’ strain or ‘shoulder’ strain? Can you please fix it?
Chicago also placed southpaw Steven Brault on the 15-day IL with a ‘should’ strain,
Why does anyone care who the Cubs bring up? They’re not in a playoff race. Just filling innings and not paying a F/A to do it. The way the Brewers swing it, he’ll prolly go 6 innings of shutout ball
Idk, maybe Cub fans care, genius?
They’re not even playing the Brewers tonight. They’re playing the Cardinals.
We all owe Luke an apology. He was excellent in his start over the red-hot Cardinals last night. I’m guessing they didn’t want St. Louis batters to see him a 3rd time so they pulled him in the middle of the 5th inning. But he gave them a great start and now deserves at least one more chance after that gem. I’m happy for him as he’s been bounced around a lot in his career so far. I’m sure his dad is proud of him too. Maybe Luke can follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a pitching coach / manager once his playing days are over.
Yeah, But what he’ll get is a pat on the back and a best of luck on the Open Market Dude. Last night was just a formality. The results don’t change the fact that he’s a round peg in a square hole.
My earlier comment was more about how far down the Cubs have sunk. There is no reason this team is grasping for straws. As far as Farrell he did good but would have liked to see him go deeper in the game.