The Cubs are not carrying reliever Keegan Thompson among the 31 players on their Tokyo Series travel roster, writes Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Thompson is out of options and needs to be on the MLB team or removed from the 40-man roster. While the Cubs don’t need to make any transactions until next Tuesday’s regular season opener, it’s likely they’ll designate Thompson for assignment at that point.
President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer acknowledged that Thompson has seemingly been squeezed out of the bullpen. “It is hard to evaluate Spring Training, but ultimately, that was how we made the decision,” he told Lee. “I thought Keegan threw well here, but ultimately, we felt like some guys were better. Realistically, we knew coming into camp that we’d have to make some hard decisions.”
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored last week, the Cubs are operating with limited roster flexibility in their bullpen. Thompson is one of six relievers on the 40-man who can’t be sent to the minors either because of their service time or out-of-options status. Colin Rea would be a seventh such reliever if he doesn’t win the fifth starter job and settles into long relief.
Non-roster invitee Brad Keller has generated positive buzz in camp. He cracked the travel roster, and while that doesn’t inherently mean he’ll make the team, the Cubs appear to be leaning towards selecting his contract. Keller, who would otherwise be able to retest free agency at the end of Spring Training, also has sufficient service time to refuse a minor league assignment once he’s on the 40-man.
The Cubs can’t accommodate all those out-of-options pitchers. They’re certainly not going to send down Porter Hodge. There’s a decent chance they’ll want to carry Nate Pearson and Eli Morgan as well. Chicago probably also needs to open two 40-man roster spots by next week. They’d need to put Keller on the 40-man if he makes the team. Top prospect Matt Shaw isn’t on the 40-man either. The Cubs haven’t officially declared that he’ll be called up, but it’s unlikely they’d have carried him on the travel roster if he weren’t going to play.
That combination of factors is likely to push Thompson off the roster. The former third-round pick hasn’t pitched much this spring. He allowed three runs on a trio of solo homers over 4 2/3 innings. Thompson worked to a 2.67 ERA over 30 1/3 innings last season. He fanned 28.3% of opponents but walked an alarming 14.2% of batters faced.
Thompson and the Cubs avoided arbitration on an $850K deal in November. If he is designated for assignment, Chicago would have five days to attempt to line up a trade or place him on waivers. With three years of arbitration control and a salary marginally above the league minimum, there’s a decent chance he’d draw interest from another team.
Weird to jettison a pitcher who was productive last year.
He wasn’t really. The ERA is misleading. He was mostly in the minors, and has been mostly injured or ineffective the last two seasons. (Of course, Hoyer is keeping several others who are little or no better…)
Well at least Ricketts Gardener will get some more cash. to buy some shrubs or something. Because cash is all they’ll get probably. More P’s gone for nothing. Estrada, Arias obviously don’t ring a bell.
You forgot the guy that you spent a good portion of the summer last year telling us that he had the best arm in the entire Cubs organization—-Thomas Pannone! You know, that guy who has pitched less than three major league innings since 2019?
That is one of my favorites of yours—that and “all Morel needs is reps”.
Estrada was REALLY good last year—but he was even worse the year before. Jason Adam has been serviceable since leaving. That’s gonna happen when you there are that many guys going in and out.
Looking forward to next Tuesday. Let’s go!!!
Pretty sure the words ” Best arm in the entire organization” Were never said by me.. I think you need to change your shorts because you just crapped yourself. I did say that while the Cubs bullpen was floundering early last year Pannone was getting it done at Iowa and deserved a call. And he did. But keep trying. Don’t let facts get in your way. My God.
Mike you are known for hyperbolic statements and had a real hard on for Pannone. For every Estrada and Arias that are missed you have to give credit to the Tyson Miller’s, Merryweather, Effros, etc that the cubs have turned into valuable pieces from the scrap heap. Never gonna bat 1000%, but the cubs turning garbage into diamonds in the bullpen happens more than them letting valuable undiscovered arms go.
That’s what the site is for. Voicing ones opinions. Sorry if I used the site for it’s intended purpose too much for you. Maybe you should try Birdie or Twinker or whatever it is now..
Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs… Blah, blah, blah..
1) If you don’t care, don’t click
2) It’s a transaction and it happened. What are they supposed to do? Not report it? I don’t understand the rationale behind complaints like this
Mets, Phillies, Braves, Mets, Phillies, Braves…
Blah, blah, blah…
How am I doing Miss Crabtree?
Nats could use him…
You can tell that this was well thought out and planned. Because with Hoyer everything is. Hey Carter, Did any of that crap I threw at the wall last week fall off yet? No? Rats, We have a game next Tue and I have to figure it all out. By the way, Did you toss a dart at the FA dartboard and figure out who we can sign yet? We still have a little space to get to 241 million. No room on the roster? Get some more crap! We need more starting P’s, Didn’t you read the article?
Ramen please!
I like Thompson but we have plenty of relievers better than him
Way too many walks. He was lucky last year to not have much worse results with a 5.3 BB/9. Makes sense that he’s the odd one out.
Happy birthday, Keegan
Does anyone have the full list of 31? It seems odd to me that that is not being reported.
I know that only 26 of them will be on the Opening Day roster, but if we knew which 4 of the 35 still in camp yesterday AREN’T on the plane, then we would know that those 4 won’t be on the Opening Day roster.
It feels like the Cubs are being cagey about this, and the media is being strangely accommodating…
mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-matt-shaw-traveling-to-japa…
The important thing in there is that the Cubs aren’t setting their roster until right before Tuesday.
True, but I think they are also trying to blur the fact that they left Alcantara off the 31, knowing that it would raise eyebrows.
Well, I don’t think he’ll be up until late this year at the least. I might have to eat crow a bit about the Cubs bench because Workman looks better than Wisdom( Spring I know) and Berti looks leaps and bounds better than Madrigal or Mastrbuoni..He(Alcantara),Needs to play and without an injury would just sit on the bench. After Tucker walks next year he could play more and when Happ and Suzuki’s deals are over in 2o26 steps in. Unless Hoyer is still here and extends them and tosses them NMC’s again. God I hope he’s gone by then. Fingers crossed.
As April gets closer the smell of incompetence and hyperbole gets stronger with this non serious organization. And people really believe.
Does anybody actually know how the 31 man squad and 26 man roster actually work next week.
Do they announce the 26 man roster before each game?
Can the Cubs leave Steele of the roster in game one and Shota off the roster in game two? Thus–allowing for additional pitcher, in theory, each day…..
There may be the plan to use Shota and Taillon in game one like it was a spring game and then Steele and Boyd in game two—or they may not intend to use Taillon nor Boyd at all—can they leave them off the 26 man roster???
I’ll admit I don’t. I asked the question in one of the phony Chats but they don’t answer my questions. They’d rather answer the What do you think we could get for Mike Trout question 250 times. I asked a question once under my own name and then later asked the same question under a phony name and they answered it so tells you all you need to know. But if I have to hide it’s not worth the trouble. Don’t read em anymore and I’m fine with it.
The most self-important pompous comment I’ve ever read.
I think they have to make a 26 man active list for the Japan Series and draw from the taxi squad in case of an injury. They also have to get down to 29 players from their 40 man by optioning players (nine already done) and placing Assad and Nico on IL.
thecubreporter.com/cubs-japan-series-roster-primer…
Thanks, Bucket!
Optioning players doesn’t get them off the 40 man roster. They are still on it, Just in the minors.
These are separate lists.
The 31 man Japan Series roster including the 5 man taxi squad. Those guys are already in Japan. Not sure what pitchers will join Reese McGuire on the taxi squad. Could include Boyd and Taillon if they start the exhibitions against NPB teams.
And the 29 man Active List before the Japan Series which will be down to the normal 26 man by the regular Opening Day in Arizona. All they need to do here is add Assad and Nico to the IL because they have already optioned nine players on the 40 man.
Again. That doesn’t get them off the 40 man roster. The injured guys would. They would have to go on the 60 day to be off the 40 man and neither will be on that. Optioning people to the minors DOES NOT remove them from the 40 man.The Cubs have to have a 26 man roster by Tue for the 1st 2 games. The other guys can be around but they are just there because of injuries so they don’t have to fly somebody in from the States.
The optioned players are not removed from the 40 man, but they have been removed from the required 29 man active list that will be whittled down to 26 by 3/27. That is separate from the 26 man roster that will be taken from the 31 players in Japan.
Brilliant move by Hoyer, per usual. Thompson had two 3 run games early last season then went on to give up all of two runs the next 15 games.
Praying for a PBO that knows what he’s doing in 2026
I mean, he’s throwing way better than Tyson Miller this spring…
They had to leave Tyson Miller on the roster or else Alan would throw a fit.
You’re making my point, Six: Miller is exactly the kind of “person of color” the Cubs like–one who has so little pigment that few even know. I suspect his classmates at California Baptist College didn’t know either.
I seriously doubt that.
I wish it weren’t so. It pains me to see it. The Cubs were like this during the awful last years of the Wrigley regime, the late 70s. Then-GM Bob Kennedy and manager Herman Franks pretty much made clear that they didn’t like the swagger and outspokenness, and hair styles, of the young black players of that era–so the Cubs roster was filled with stumpy white guys, and the on-field results were predictable. And now we are back there again. It is rather remarkable that they went out of their way to embarrass and disappoint Alcantara by excluding him from the Japan trip at the last minute. The whole thing makes me sick, and I can understand why you and others here don’t want to acknowledge what is going on. It is a very uncomfortable topic.
Well, if PCA goes down, they’ll just have to put Brujan out there. It’s too bad they aren’t playing the Tigers, because if Vidal ran around in circles, they’d turn into butter.
On March 26, Hoyer will activate Hoerner and cut Brujan. Then Hoyer will have finally achieved his goal: an all-white team (and two Asians). (Yes, Amaya too, but as I have said, they don’t seem to mind *light-skinned* players who are technically “players of color”; it’s dark-skinned players they reject.)
I admit I have over-made my point, and most of you don’t agree with it, or want to agree with it, and that’s cool. I’ll shut up now. And when the Cubs have someone who looks like Elly de la Cruz in a prominent role on the team, I’ll gladly admit I was wrong all along. But not before, because my thesis that annoys some of you so much is based on observation, on empirical evidence. I have no axe to grind. I am sorry that the team I have followed for 65 years is being run by racists. That makes me feel sad.
You’re literally the only one who thinks and looks at things like this, Alan, my goodness, get some help.
So long partner, you will be remembered fondly for your 2021