The Cubs have announced to reporters, including Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, that they have selected the contract of left-hander Anthony Kay. Right-hander Nick Burdi was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster while righty Jeremiah Estrada was optioned to open a spot on the active roster. Earlier today, the club also placed lefty Brandon Hughes on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation while recalling infielder Miles Mastrobuoni in a corresponding move, with Jordan Bastian of MLB.com among those to relay those moves.
Kay, 28, came to the Cubs in December when they claimed him off waivers from the Blue Jays. They put him back on waivers about a month later but were able to get him through, keeping him in the organization. He’s spent the year in Triple-A so far, tossing 28 innings over 23 appearances. He has a 4.50 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate, 12.8% walk rate and 54.4% ground ball rate.
Prior to joining the Cubs, Kay got some big league experience with the Jays. From 2019 to 2022, he got into 28 games and logged 70 2/3 innings with a 5.48 ERA. He struck out a solid 23.5% of opponents and got grounders at a 44.4% rate but walked 11.6% of batters faced.
The Cubs had been operating for a while with Hughes as their only left-handed reliever. Now that this knee inflammation will put him out of action for a while, Kay will get another shot in the big leagues as the team’s lone southpaw in the bullpen. He has one option year remaining and could be sent back to Iowa at some point while still holding onto his spot on the 40-man. He has between one and two years of service time and could be cheaply retained for future seasons if he does indeed hang onto that spot.
As for Burdi, he had his contract selected in the middle of May but then went on the injured list May 24 due to appendicitis. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, or late July.
Why Mastrobuoni again? Heck, I’d rather see Bote.
Eehhh, maybe it’s time to give Perlaza a shot. And throw Morel at 3B for awhile.
Dogbone, with ya on seeing Perlaza, not as sure about Morel at 3rd. He can play 2nd without getting in much trouble, but I’d like to see him get a couple months at 3rd in Iowa. He seems really shaky at 3rd.
Dogbone, heard Ross talk about this today. “I want to put (Morel) in places he can be successful. He hasn’t spent much time at 3rd. I can’t rule out different situations, but for now, I probably won’t work him in there.”
He did say he was going to give Madrigal a “run” at 3rd for a stretch.
He only spent the first month of the season at Iowa playing there and looked just fine. Guess they didn’t tell Ross.
Mike, Ross initially kinda avoided answering the question. Said a lot of nice things about Morel. Then Ross was saying, just not saying, that they would prefer not to play him at 3rd.
Morel played 9 games at 3rd at Iowa.
Yeah, it’s a little bit mystifying that they haven’t brought Bote back up. He can play third base, can’t he? Kind of annoying watching Wisdom strike out 60% of the time.
Hoyers been watching Wisdom strike out for almost 3 years now. He must really enjoy it.
Your vote out of spring was Rios wasn’t it?
When your options are between Wisdom and Bote, you’re just rearranging chairs on the Titanic. And I’m a Cub fan.. and Ross needs to GO.
There is absolutely no reason the Cubs should be this bad with their rotation. The line up isn’t a world beater but it’s better than the awful line ups Ross uses and his bullpen by dartboard approach is ridiculous.
Curious as to why Bellinger is playing 1B for Iowa tonight.
Ross has had share of blame for the Cubs blunders. But it’s Hoyer who built this team.
I would love to have some direct intel on the actual happenings with this team’s decision making. Not really sure if it’s all on Ross. Even daily stuff like line up construction and bullpen usage. Think about the movie Money Ball when Billy Bean was telling Art Howe who to play and use.
Hoyer did build this team and the team is better than their record.
Ross has put out several non-competitive line ups with their best pitchers on the mound, I was affectionately referring to is as the “let’s screw Steele” line up before Ross has to find himself a new whipping boy to insert terrible line ups to “support”.
Lots of guys in the pen have had bad seasons to this point but part of that is the pitcher and part is on Ross. The manager has two main jobs, put the most effective line up on the field and bullpen match ups. Both have been miserable failures.
This isn’t a Moneyball situation. Ross has discussed multiple times about tweeking the lineup and still learning about his guys.
I don’t generally get into criticizing managers, but Lineups, batting order, bullpen usage,.. have all been an issue for me.
The biggest wart to me is Ross pulling a starter that is cruising along at 80-85 pitches. It’s like he’s trying to protect the starters and keep them fresh for the 2nd half. All this at the expense of an inexperienced, mostly untested bullpen.
The Houston game they gave up a 6-1 lead, Smyly was cruising through 6 with 84 pitches. Ross doesn’t allow Smyly to come out for the 7th with the back half of Houstons order coming up. Ross instead, turns it over to a shaky, overused bullpen. Thing blows up.
Last night, up 8-3. After using Merryweather, Ross used Leiter in the 8th. He has 2 bullpen guys he can trust and those are 2 of them.
I would say another issue is over the bullpen in meaningless games. Getting blown out early and Ross still burning through 4/5 relievers instead of just burning through a guy in long relief and sending them down the next day.
Isn’t a Money Ball situation?
Is that your guess or do you have direct intel on the decision making?
Maybe not directly a Money Ball situation as portrayed in the film I’ll give you that. But the decisions just have me wondering.
Direct Intel from Ross saying, ” yeah, I’ve been thinking of tinkering a little with the lineup, maybe sliding Into the #5″
“I’ll move guys up and down depending on who the starter is”
“I’m still kinda learning about my guys (in the bullpen) how much work can they handle. Are they effective back to back. Its part of growing as a team and me still learning as a manager.”
Today I heard a part of an interview, he was asked Morel would get time at 3rd, “I want to put him in places he can be successful. He hasn’t spent much time at 3rd. I can’t rule out different situations, but for now, I probably won’t work him in there.”
The fact that he’s owned making a couple dumb decisions “I’d like to have that back”
So, yeah his ownership of those moves tells me he’s making the decision. Have I talked to Hoyer and had him tell me that face to face, no. Sometimes it’s what people don’t say that explains things. Sometimes it’s just them owning stuff that tells you.
Bote or Velasquez or Slaughter or anyone one else. Re-sign Eric Hosmer
The slugging percentage of tonight’s line up could only be made worse if they put Mancini in right.
Whatever happened to Bote? It’s like he fell off the face of the earth.
He just flat out didn’t make the team out of ST I guess. No matter how his career goes from here. Whether they call him up or whatever it may be. He’ll always have that walk off grand slam in 2018 vs. Nationals. Mid August game. For some reason the Nats manager took out Scherzer after 8 scoreless. (2nd time a cubs team did that to Mad Max, he was a rookie on the dbacks. He pitch 7 scoreless and the cubs came back and won that game)
I love the Irony of having Mastrobuoni in the line up as the designated hitter tonight.
Thank you! I’ve been saying this for weeks now and have been getting shunned. The guy has a good amount of big league experience and experience being clutch. He has like ZERO pressure on his back too like everyone else failing since he’s got his pay day to cover his family and he’s already been off the roster as a minor leaguer. He’s got nothing to lose and Miles is a lost cause as proven already.
Mastrobuoni-DesignatedHitter is an Oxymoron.
At least Michael Kay’s son will get another chance.
Why don’t they just fix Hughes knee before he trashes his arm? I don’t get that. The Cubs are usually smarter than that. Just scope it already and find out what’s wrong with it. Not like he’s pitching all that well this way anyway.
There sure seems to be a big difference b/w the sustained success of the Astros, Dodgers, and even Guardians vs the Cubs from 2016-2023. The Cubs 40 man roster has maybe 15 players that would be on the Astros, Dodgers, and Guardians 40 man roster, It’s actually quite impressive how far the Cubs have fallen.
I guess the few years they were successful is just blip on the radar. Yeah there is 2016 to show for it but looking back now…..what a disappointment. No sustained success. Put up with that horrific rebuild 10 years ago then success for a few years now back to being the Chicago Cubs. Very disappointing.
This is not a serious baseball team, they have been perpetually rebuilding, minus a couple of successful seasons in over 100 years. As the 3rd largest market share in the league its ridiculous, the Ricketts are the McCaskeys of baseball. No knowledge of the game or real interest in baseball or business. Its a shiny toy Daddy bought them. The Marquee network is a joke, they are only interested in sponsor $. Nothing will change until the loyal fans wake up and stop asking for a bigger spoon when they are served a giant bowl of crap.
Tom Ricketts scratched himself with his World Series ring while wiping a tear from his eye.
I wonder if the cubs owner got a ring too. Since he’s probably never been to Wrigley or at least not since he bought the team.
I love how foolish you make yourself look.
Yeah, the Ricketts have been the problem for a 100 years. Rabble, rabble… They took my job.
I really wish we were able to post gifs in here for that last sentence.
“The future people took my job.” South Park Reference.
The reason the Dodgers always compete is their farm system, they’re bringing up a guy named Emmett Sheehan who’ll be a star, every minor league team won the first half, they’re always good