The Cubs have made a couple of roster moves today, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. They have recalled catcher Miguel Amaya and designated left-hander Ryan Borucki for assignment.
This series of moves was prompted by an injury to Yan Gomes, who was hit in the head by a backswing yesterday and removed in the second inning. That left Tucker Barnhart as the only healthy backstop on the roster, which led the Cubs to call on Amaya.
The 24-year-old has had a long journey to get here, having been signed as an international amateur out of Panama back in 2015. He’s been considered one of the club’s more notable prospects for quite some time, with Baseball America ranking him #2 in the system in 2019. He was added to the club’s 40-man roster at the end of that year in order to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.
The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Amaya only played 23 games in 2021, eventually requiring Tommy John surgery that wiped out a lot of his 2022 as well. Due to those factors, he’s only played 76 minor league games since the end of 2019, missing out on a big chunk of development time.
He’s off to a great start here this year, having hit .273/.411/.659 in 13 Double-A games. The injury to Gomes will give him a chance to skip Triple-A, at least for the moment, and make his major league debut as soon as he’s put into a game. Gomes is still under evaluation, per Montemurro, and the extent of his injury will likely impact how long Amaya is up in the majors.
As for Borucki, he was just selected to the club’s roster on the weekend and now gets designated for assignment without even getting into a game. A former starter with the Blue Jays, he’s converted to relief in recent years with mixed results. He had a 2.70 ERA in 2020 but that jumped to 4.94 and 5.68 in recent years as his strikeout rate dipped in kind, going from 28.8% to 21.4% and 18.9%.
The Cubs will have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers though the interest might be muted given his struggles in recent years. He’s also posted an ERA of 12.00 in Triple-A so far this year. In the event he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency, both on account of having a previous career outright and having more than three years of major league service time.
Wondering if Borucki will send a Christmas Card to the dude who hit Gomes in the back of the head to send him from call up to DFA in one night. SMH
White Sox, here’s your chance!
Saw that coming
Didn’t even need your glasses.
Btw, Borucki spelled backwards is Ikcurob.
Saw that coming from a long way off.
The Blue Jays need another southpaw in there bullpen
So hopefully the Jays pick him up for FREE
12 ERA in 9 innings pitched in AAA.
HE will be free that is for sure.
Congrats to Amaya, once considered a top 100 prospect before COVID and Tommy John.
Still young and can still reach his potential, he was doing great in AA.
Does this mean that Yan Gomes passed concussion protocol?
No, It means he’s still woozy but not expected to take 10 days to recover. Amaya wasn’t the best option. But he was the only option on the 40 man already.
He’s not in concussion protocol, nor was he last night. At this point the Cubs may be evaluating if he will be able to play before seven days which is the length a team has to ability to choose if they believe there is enough of a concern of concussion symptoms.
All reports last night and today were that he is not and was not in official concussion protocol.
Resting a banged catcher is not the same as resting a banged up position player. The Cubs only were carrying two catchers on the roster so if Gomes is unavailable today, they have no back up for Barnhart.
I was hoping at some point the Cubs would have Amaya backing up Gomes. Gomes is one of the best catchers in the league when it comes to handling pitching staffs, he can read pitches and opposing batters swings better than almost anyone in the league.