Cubs Claim Gavin Hollowell, Designate David Bote

The Cubs have claimed right-hander Gavin Hollowell off waivers from the Diamondbacks and optioned him to Triple-A Iowa. The Snakes had designated him for assignment a few days ago. To open a 40-man roster spot, the Cubs have designated infielder David Bote for assignment. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune was among those to relay the news on X.

Hollowell, 26, was drafted by the Rockies and was with that organization until recently. The Diamondbacks claimed him off waivers in June and now he moves via another waiver claim, this time landing with the Cubs.

The interest from clubs likely stems from his big strikeout numbers in the minors, though he has also given out a large number of walks and hasn’t yet transferred those punchouts to the major league level.

The Rockies put him into 30 games over the 2022 and 2023 seasons and he pitched 40 2/3 innings with a 6.20 earned run average. He struck out 21.5% of batters faced in that time and gave out walks at an 11.8% rate. But since the start of 2023, he has thrown 47 minor league innings and struck out 27.9% of batters faced. That’s come with an elevated 13% walk rate and a 4.60 ERA, but clubs are always interested in missing bats.

He still has one option year after this one, so the Cubs could give him a lot of rope in the minors to see if he can rein in his stuff. If he does so, he has less than a year of service time and therefore comes with many years of club control and is still far away from qualifying for arbitration.

Bote, 31, signed an extension with the Cubs in April of 2019, a five-year pact that guaranteed him over $15MM. He served in a multi-positional role for a while but his results eventually tailed off, at least partially due to some injury troubles.

He was outrighted off the roster at the end of 2022 with two guaranteed years still left on his deal. Since he had more than three years of service time, he could have elected free agency, but doing so would have meant walking away from the remaining money on his contract since he was shy of the five-year service mark. Naturally, he stayed with the club and has been with them in a non-roster capacity until they selected his contract again in June.

He has a solid .304/.333/.391 batting line in his 48 plate appearances this year but that’s being held up by an unsustainable .424 batting average on balls in play. He has no home runs in that time and a 4.2% walk rate.

With the trade deadline now passed, the Cubs will have to put Bote on waivers in the coming days. It’s unlikely that any club would claim him and take on the remainder of his contract. He’s making $5.5MM this year with still roughly $1.1MM left to be paid out. There’s also a $1MM buyout on a $7MM club option for 2025.

Bote is still shy of five years of service time, meaning he still doesn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment and keep all of his money. Assuming he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will presumably accept another outright assignment and provide the Cubs with depth in a non-roster capacity.