The Cubs announced Monday that right-hander Rowan Wick went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa. The team also optioned infielder/outfielder Christopher Morel to Iowa. Non-roster veterans Mike Tauchman and Roenis Elias, meanwhile, have been reassigned to minor league camp. They won’t make the roster out of spring training. Manager David Ross also confirmed earlier in the day that right-hander Javier Assad has made the team’s Opening Day bullpen (Twitter link via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com).
Wick, 30, has enough service time to reject the outright assignment, but doing so would mean forfeiting the $1.55MM salary to which he agreed earlier in the offseason when he avoided arbitration. As such, he’s all but certain to accept the assignment and remain in the organization without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.
Wick has spent the past four seasons with the Cubs, pitching to a combined 3.66 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate and 44.2% ground-ball rate. His results have dipped over the past two years, however, with his ERA clocking in at 4.24 during that time. Last year’s 23.5% strikeout rate was the lowest of his four seasons with the Cubs.
The Cubs had enough faith in Wick to sign him to that $1.55MM deal, and that salary now quite likely helped them pass him through waivers. Since avoiding arbitration with Wick, they’ve signed Brad Boxberger and Michael Fulmer in addition to claiming hard-throwing righty Julian Merryweather off waivers. With a strong showing in Iowa, Wick would figure to put himself back in the mix for a big league spot pretty quickly, given his track record, but he’ll open the year in the minors and off the 40-man roster.
As for Morel, he’ll head to Iowa to receive regular at-bats rather than work in a part-time role on the big league roster. The 23-year-old hit .235/.308/.433 while playing third base, second base, shortstop, left field and center field in his MLB debut last summer. That came on the heels of a huge .306/.380/.565 batting line in Double-A. However, Morel still has only nine Triple-A games to his name, and strikeouts were an issue for him both in last year’s debut (32.2%) and even more so during spring training in 2023 (42.1%). Even though he fanned 24 times in 57 Cactus League plate appearances, he still posted a .269/.333/.577 batting line, but that type of production isn’t sustainable with such pronounced swing-and-miss issues.
The decision to option Morel doesn’t take away from the fact that the Cubs are still hoping he’ll be a major contributor for them over the long term. However, for the time being, the focus will be on reining in his strikeout tendencies in order to better take advantage of his impressive combination of plus raw power and plus speed.
Poor Keanu. Maybe he can find success in another line of work.
Yeah they should not disrespect Mr. Wick!
Ed WIN Rios
K or HR
Mancini
Wick semi-surprised me but given how inconsistent he is in high leverage situations it’s not a shock.
I’m glad to Morel in AAA, I thought he would have a shot holding RF until Suzuki came back but he needs to play every day.
I thought Wick would stick
Nope. Rowan is goin’
It’s just his cover story to go join his distant uncle at the next Continental location for token shenanigans.
I thought Morel would stick. He is a great club-house and fan guy, but he needs to upgrade his hit tool.
If Morel keeps doing what he is doing then he will be up at some point in the season. I do believe Rios earned a roster spot but he carries a ton of swing and miss along with Wisdom, Bellinger and Swanson, the Cubs really needs/needed to hold onto Madrigal as the primary bench option.
What happened to Madrigal? Is he still with the cubs?
Too bad Morel strikes out at an even higher rate than Javy Baez did. Doesn’t come with as good a glove either. I like him, but I don’t expect anything more than a bench role from him, so yeah he needs to go to AAA and play a lot more. Maybe he surprises me.
Elias the Gitmo kid, I forgot all about him.
Very surprised Morel didn’t make the cut – he’s gotta be super disappointed especially since Tauchman (thankfully) didn’t make it either. Who is gonna start in RF on opening day?
Maybe Miles Mastrouboni in RF
Patrick Wisdom. Unfortunately.
And Mancini.
Please Wick reject the assignment. So they were able to trade McKinstry but not Wick? That’s surprising. I guess more people think Wick blows like I do.
Mike, did it ever occur to you, that ‘they’ (Jed) didn’t attempt, or ever want to trade Wick.
Maybe uncle Mike’s talent evaluation skills, and roster building skills – – – might leave a little to be desired?
So in your world, They put him on waivers where anybody can claim him, But that they didn’t try to trade him? Your World sure must be one weird place. Plus he can just walk away now if he wants to. You ever think things through before you start typing? LOL
@uncle clown- You wanna walk from a $1.55 million contract?
If you look closely at what he said Dogbone….Wick blows like Unclemike does. This really isn’t the platform to share that type of personal information, but if Unclemike wants the world to know he blows like Wick….let him tell the world.
Exact words “Wick blows like I do”. 😉
Nothing like a little fun diversion with real baseball hours away!
Well I’m not sure he blows like me, But I do know with a baseball in his hand he blows. Chunks. LOL You got me
It’s actually a very sly move by Jed giving him that contract. It’s essentially a loophole to more easily move him off the 40-man roster and keep him in the organization. If anyone were in his shoes, why would they reject the minor league assignment and that $1.55 million after the realization that not one of the other 29 teams was willing to have you at that price…? Further, I believe Adrian Sampson is on a similar situation if the Cubs wanted to remove him from the 40-man roster.
Nico, congrats on your contract lol.
And any explanation of a ‘sly move’, would take uncle mike, awhile to figure out and understand.
I’m guessing optioning Morel and trading McKinstry means Madrigal made the roster as a utility Infielder.
Of course.
No I heard the Cubs are keeping Torrens and thus will have 3 C’s. Torrens even played some 2B today against the Sox. Mastrobuoni is the jack of all trades and they’re only carrying 2 OF’s and then Wisdom, Mancini and Mastrobuoni as extra OF. So:
Hoerner
Swanson
Wisdom
Mancini
Mastrobuoni
Gomes
Barnhart
Bellinger
Happ
Torrens
Rios
Hosmer
?
I doubt it will be Madrigal. But I could be wrong. I kind of liked the way Vasquez looked, But it’s probably just me.
Vasquez had a .479 OPS at Iowa last year, and a .653 at Tennessee with a poor BA. With Morel, Bote, Slaughter, and Alcantara at Iowa, I suspect that he starts back at Tennessee until he can get his OBP over .300.
Not sure on that. Mastrobuoni probably earned the top utility spot. I believe the other roster spots come down to Hosmer, Rios, Torrens & Madrigal. (in that order)
If Suzuki doesn’t go on the DL, one of those final 4 names don’t go on the 26 man.
I would send Madrigal down so he can play every day for a month to get the bat working.
I don’t really think Hosmer has outplayed Rios, but hasn’t played himself off the roster.
Mastrobuoni has already proved himself at AAA in the Rays organization and played all three outfield spots and both MI spots before being traded to the Cubs. He’s played a little 3B but he’s probably not more than an emergency option there.
The big thing to me is that he can be the primary backup in CF, SS, and 2B, and a late inning defensive replacement in the corner outfield spots if Mancini wanders out there. With a four man bench, that is important to have one guy covering those roles, even if he gets the fewest starts of the bench guys.
I’m kind of surprised that the Cubs are bringing Asad up north to be a reliever. I thought it would be much better to send him to Iowa and keep him stretched out. To me it would be much better to have him ready to step in if somebody gets injured.
I am, but not surprised. He pitched so well in the WBC I guess the thinking is, ride the hot hand/arm. If someone does go down, you can start Assad. Bring Sampson up, and let him fill long relief until Assad is stretched. Then Sampson becomes part of the bullpen.
I could be mistaken but I think Miles mall Mastrobuoni made the team somehow. Honestly I’m glad they traded McKinstry. I don’t know anything about Carlos Guzman though.