The Cubs designated left-hander Richard Lovelady for assignment Tuesday, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Tyson Miller, whose previously reported trade from Seattle to Chicago is now official.
Lovelady, 28, signed a minor league pact with the Cubs back in January and was selected to the big league roster in late April. He’s tossed 5 2/3 innings out of Craig Counsell’s bullpen and been tagged for five runs on nine hits and a pair of walks with six strikeouts. That marks the fifth big league season in which the southpaw has appeared; Lovelady made his MLB debut with the 2019 Royals and pitched in K.C. from 2019-21, and he logged 23 1/3 innings with the A’s last season. Overall, in 70 2/3 big league innings, he carries a 5.48 ERA but with a far more encouraging 22.7% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 49.8% ground-ball rate.
That blend of strikeouts, walks and grounders, coupled with a strong Triple-A track record, has made Lovelady appealing to MLB teams over the past year despite a history of success in the majors. The Cubs are his fourth organization since Opening Day 2023. Lovelady has been picked up by the Braves in a small trade, claimed off waivers by the A’s, and quickly selected to the big leagues with the Cubs.
In parts of six Triple-A seasons, Lovelady has a 2.95 ERA with a sharp strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates of 26.6%, 6.8% and 50.7%, respectively. He’s not a power arm, but he has added more than a mile per hour to both his four-seamer and sinker since last year’s showing with Oakland. He sat at 91 mph with both pitches last year but averaged 92.8 mph on the four-seam and 92.5 mph on his two-seam during his brief showing with Chicago.
Lovelady does have a minor league option remaining, so any club that picks him up via trade or waiver claim could send him to Triple-A without first passing him through waivers themselves. He’ll be traded, claimed off waivers or assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa within the next week (if he clears waivers). He’s been outrighted previously in his career, so Lovelady would have the right to reject a minor league assignment from the Cubs if he does go unclaimed.
No real surprise here with Little being able to be recalled and the Cubs needing a roster spot.
Luck be a Lovelady tonight
A+ tier name, D tier reliever, and F tier person. Somehow he’ll try to blame the Royals for getting cut from the A’s too.
Bum A- We’re giving your roster spot to Bum B. Sorry. Not!
“Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Lovelady, it’s a boy. Do you have a name in mind?”
“Dick. Final answer.”
Darn, I was hoping for “Maurice.”
Who speaks of the pompitus of love
Next Bud Light spokesperson?
He just loved the lady too much! Focus on baseball bro!
Finally, Hoyer get the lights
-out reliever desperately needed since last year’s trade deadline! This is the move that puts us over the top, Cubs’ fans….. NOT!
The Cubs dicked him down
Look I’m not going to lose a whole bunch of sleep over this whole transaction. Slaughter was never going to be anything more than a decent utility player for the Cubs. He’s just blocked everywhere he plays. Lovelady was horrible, No big loss there. Miller will be DFA’d soon, Probably when Smyly comes back. The crap pitcher market revolves some more. It’s putting a Band Aid on a knife wound. Yeah it might slow the bleeding for a couple of minutes( At Best), But it’s really not solving anything at all. The real problem was the Cubs re-signed Hendricks in a year when they had hardly any room for error if they want to play the Luxury Tax game. The Bullpen was more of a need than a Starting P who can’t break glass. By the way that article on MLB.com that describes Hendricks 5 innings against the Pirates as a ” Gem”, Really didn’t watch the game.
I agree with you 100%
Somehow , I feel Getz on the Southside will be interested. He is a former Royal!!
I’m surprised none of his ancestors thought to change that last name and why did his parents add that unfortunate first name?
Because his parents are my age. We came home from class every day to watch Bart Simpson call Moe’s Tavern looking for Oliver Closehoff, Ben Dover, and Ivanna Mantekiss. We dreamed of the opportunity for clever and stupid names for the teacher to call out loud in class. We had to grow up with “Boy Named Sue” mentality, so did our future kids. Unfortunately, it backfired on us when our kids grew up softer and more sensitive, and now we have grandkids named Tyler, Skylar, Miler, Brayson, Grayson, and Maeve.
With a name like that, he was never cutout for Wrigley.
Talk about a Dick move from the Cubs.
I went straight to the comments and I am not disappointed.
Should have traded him to the White Sox for Danny Mendick, if for nothing else but the headlines in the sports page the next day.
Hey Jed, when re-arming the Bullpen, why not go all in and get some other former Cubs? Tyler Chatwood, Rod Beck and Fergie stand out as better options in their current form than this cheap crap we have now.
A name Bill Cosby would love