Today: The Cubs released Berti today, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. Presumably, the veteran infielder cleared waivers and, considering he has enough service time to reject an outright with forfeiting any salary, the club chose just to grant him his release instead. He is now a free agent.
August 12: The Cubs announced today that catcher Miguel Amaya and right-hander Javier Assad have both been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. In corresponding active roster moves, the Cubs have optioned right-hander Nate Pearson to Triple-A and designated infielder Jon Berti for assignment. The 40-man roster had one vacancy, with Berti’s DFA clearing another.
Berti, 35, signed with the Cubs in the offseason. He has long been a scrappy and versatile utility player in the bigs, playing almost every position on the diamond while stealing bases and often producing offense around league average.
The Cubs came into the year with some uncertainty at third base and they threw a few things at the wall there. They traded Isaac Paredes to the Astros as part of the Kyle Tucker deal, opening a path for prospect Matt Shaw to earn the job. Just in case Shaw didn’t hit the ground running, they had some backup plans. They acquired Vidal Bruján, took Gage Workman in the Rule 5 draft, in addition to signing Justin Turner and Berti.
Most of those moves didn’t work out well, including Berti. He has hit just .210/.262/.230 in his 107 plate appearances this year. He hung around the roster as Shaw and other guys struggled. Workman was jettisoned long ago. More recently, Shaw has started to click and the Cubs also added Willi Castro ahead of the deadline. That bumped out Bruján a couple of weeks back and now Berti loses his roster spot as well.
With the trade deadline having passed, the Cubs will have to put Berti on waivers. Given his struggles and his salary, he won’t be claimed. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. It’s possible the Cubs skip that formality and simply release him.
At that point, any club could sign Berti and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Cubs pay. It’s possible he garners interest at that point from a club looking to bolster its bench. Berti came into this year with 97 steals, a .259/.337/.366 line and 95 wRC+ while playing everywhere except catcher and first base.
Without Berti, the Cubs are going with a three-catcher setup. While Amaya has been on the IL, Carson Kelly has been the primary backstop, backed up by Reese McGuire. No one in that trio can be optioned to the minors, so the Cubs are keeping all three of them, at least for now.
Assad’s return seemingly shuffles the rotation a bit. Assad is listed as tonight’s probable starter. Ben Brown was previously in that spot, so it seems he will slide back into a long relief role. Assad posted a 3.73 earned run average over 29 starts for the Cubs last year. He hasn’t been able to build on that here in 2025, as he suffered an oblique strain during spring training and then re-aggravated that strain during the season. He’ll be making his season debut north of the border tonight as the Cubs are in Toronto to face the Blue Jays.
Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images
Makes total sense to me but the Cubs need to bring up Caissie.
The earliest they will bring up Caissie is September 1.
Caissie wouldn’t start five games a week in Chicago.
Who cares how many starts a young player gets after being called up with a MLB team, once you get to mid August. If Caissie can help from this point on, I agree, he should be called up. And if he hits better than Happ, he should be getting more ABs than Happ.
Caissie will never see the field in 2025 because that will prove Hoyer is a moron for trading for Tucker in the first place. Even if he goes 0 for September, Gollum will never take the chance.
Such a meatball take Unclemike
They only traded for Tucker because season ticket sales were dwindling. Now they are back to a waiting list.
Mike, I think Cassie starting in left would be an indictment on Happ. He wouldn’t come up for Tucker’s spot. Cubs are going to ride or die with Tucker and hope he breaks out of this homerun drought.
As of yesterday morning, Aug. 11, FanGraphs had the Cubs’ chance to make the postseason at 97.1%, Baseball Reference had them at 99.1%, and PECOTA had them at 99.7%. Remember those numbers, and when the season ends Sept. 28, ponder the predictive value of simulations.
You think the cubs are gonna miss the playoffs again? Unless they go on a 20 game losing streak they’re either going to win the division or take one of the wild card spots along with the Mets and padres
Well, they surely aren’t going to win the division–it makes me lose confidence in you that you can even type that–and there is an excellent chance that they will finish behind the Reds or Cardinals for the last WC spot.
I’ve been saying since the beginning of the year( Yeah even when they were scoring a ton of runs) That Counsell’s lineup sucks. They should have PCA leading off then Hoerner, Tucker, Suzuki, Busch and the rest however you like. Having Happ and Busch lead off is ridiculous. His continued refusal to change it while they spiral into oblivion is curious at best.
Cubs are the #1 wild card team right now not #3
Check again in a couple of days, sad-neglected. Then check again a couple of days after that.
Well, uncle, it is soooooo 1970s to have the fast men at the top. We must be modern, after all. Even if it costs us the postseason (sarcasm).
That said, it might not make that much difference. The league has figured out PCA, everyone else has stopped hitting, and poor Tucker has been reduced to performing frustration when he makes out after out.
And, not that it matters, but Boog and JD are losing whatever credibility they ever had as they whistle past the graveyard.
I bookmarked this page. I’ll keep those numbers in mind. This is gonna be as wrong as the White Sox being the better Chicago team.
@Stein: As you often do, you are writing in ways that express animosity but not clarity, so it’s hard to know what your point is. So let me ask you point-blank: As of right now, do you think the Cubs are going to make the postseason, or not?
They are not beating the Crew. That team is on another level and the fav for the series
Sure, let’s leadoff the hitter with a sub-.300 OBP who struggles hitting lefties.
Bye Bye Berti
Clearly, the secret to the Brewers success was not really Craig Counsell.
The secret to the Brewers success is that they develop talent better than the team you cheer for.
Correct. And they also scout for talent better.
Counsell is a good manager, but the Cubs’ problems are in the front office.
Brewers’ fans hatred for Counsell is amusing. They don’t seem to realize that their expressions of it reveal that they are unsophisticated rubes. He went where they offered him more money. Simple as that.
As a long time Cubs fan I have nothing but professional respect for the Brewers organization. They just do it right. Draft, scout, develop. While being very financially savy. Doesn’t matter which players they loose to injury, trade, free agency. Including their former manager. They loose a player for whatever reason, no problem. They just go to their minor leagues (As I call it their local Big Box store) and it seems like a plug and play. Very impressive.
A team who knows how to use their Farm System? Wonder what that would be like? Gollum just fattens up prospects until they start to rot and then sends them to the slaughterhouse. Trades them for some magic beans.
The Brewers in the postseason have yet to prove that, @Fred K. Burke
Maybe it was Craig realizing Murph was the real man to lead that org and he could glide into chi town and get paid so kind of a win win maybe that’s Counsells last gift to Mil baseball.. probably not but hey I said maybe…..
Fly away little Berti
Burdi and Bert got released in less than 24 hours. It was weird seeing the Cubs headline as MLBTR sometimes reposts with an update and at first I thought it was more info on Burdi despite Cubs being in the headline.
DFAing Berti beats DFAing McGuire.
What happened to Berti? He was a pretty useful bench player in Miami but has been pretty bad since leaving
He was Cubs 3rd string catcher now replaced by Amaya
Once again Gollum makes a mistake. Bringing up Assad when he’s obviously not all the way back yet if you watched him pitch reeks of the Hodge move 2.0. He has Birdsell, Noland and Sanders all stretched out. Idiot. At least Callis and friends have restored the top 30 list to what it should have been all year. except for the draft picks obviously. About time.
Ummm….Birdsell is out for the season. First lat….now elbow. Elbow…..done. Take him out of your schtick.
Just saw him pitch. I hadn’t heard that but Minor League Injury info is kind of few and far between.
You need to stop consuming whatever substance makes you such an angry person.
He just never got a chance a play this year and he was hurt most of last year.
Aaron Miles.
Doesn’t matter anymore. Much too late. Division to brewers and cubs in fight now to just make playoffs With only homers to score, have cubs forgotten how to run bases?
I liked Berti as a player and person, and I wish he could’ve found more success on this team. He seems like a great teammate and just didn’t really get much playing time to solidify a role. Carrying three catchers is definitely an odd choice, but not entirely surprising.
It gives the Cubs an extra hitter now. Berti is a good fielder, not much of an hitter: He’ll make a great coach after he hangs up his cleats.
With Turner still on the roster, the bench is limited.
Yep, none of the catchers seem like strong choices for a pinch hitter. None of them have additional positional versatility. You basically have Turner who can play corner. Infield, Castro who can be a super utility player, and then two catchers.
You have Castro and Shaw who can both play just about anywhere. Then you have Turner, Castro and Shaw who can play 3rd. Then Amaya was originally a 3B. No idea when he played there last. But given the choice between Berti as 3rd C or Amaya as a 4th 3B, I know which way I’d go.
…if only there was a website (that could be linked in the article) that could provide that information. Alas, one can dream.
Does anybody realize that caissie only 44 in mlb pipeline? Why are they holding onto him thinking he’s so special even with Tucker who’s doing zilch?
Cubs fans always view their top prospect as the second coming. All fanbases do this, but Cubs are the worst.
Where have you gone Matt Mervis?
Corey Patterson says hold my beer
Felix Pie says hold my Dom Perignon.
Felix Pie reference that’s bringing a nuclear device to a rock fight
Poor berti! Berti hardly the problem. Looks like another brewer to be and will wait to use him vs cubs next week. In which he’ll do damage. Entire cubs organization doesn’t know how to get best out of their players.
He ain’t the answer either. The answers will never see the field thanks to Gollum.
Who is Gollum?
The POBO. You know, Must have the precious!
Thanks Alan53. I was wondering the same thing. I thought Uncle was really losing it. But now I get it. I’m slow at my old age.
Come on Fred…you know Uncle. Only he can turn a DFA of Jon Berti into the flavor of the week way of bashing Hoyer. “Gollum” will stick for a while and then we will get something new. He’s got to stay fresh….lots of bashing he’s gonna do over the next three or four or six years.
I’m the former Lit professor, and I needed to be reminded! “I grow old, I grow old…. (TS Eliot)
Well this may back fire for the Cubs. Brewers pick him up to replace Seigler, then becomes Zorbist for the last 2 months. Book it
@stubby: The Brewers’ results are irrelevant to the Cubs at this point. I doubt very much that Berti will end up there, but if he does, I hope he helps the Brewers win their remaining games against the Reds and Cardinals.
I get what your saying but if they find someone who could absolutely help them down the stretch and be that guy that helps if someone falls off you better believe they are keeping an eye out for them. Milwaukee bench is our weakest link right now in Monso and Seigler. Milwaukee may have made a mistake in not giving Clarke that chance to be a David Frye, Durbon or Moore.
Perhaps. But since the Brewers literally win every game, I don’t think they have any weak links.
That said, as much pitching as they seem to have, I think they might have gone for another starting pitcher at the deadline. It is not inconceivable that the Phillies or Dodgers could beat them in the NLCS because of superior starting pitching.
I like the Berti release. He should be able to keep his hand on the base–even when he is for no good reason wearing an oven mitt on it. The idea of being on a team is to WIN key games for the team, not to LOSE them. Buh-bye.
LOL. Brett Taylor, a shill’s shill, is *already* making excuses for Assad, who has always been, shall we charitably say, *limited* as a major-league pitcher. Taylor is ridiculous.
Full disclosure: Taylor banned me from commenting a few years ago because he misinterpreted a comment I made as being antigay. He is not particularly bright and could not follow the nuanced point I was making, and focused on a word that he misunderstood instead. Life for him must be a kind of endless series of not-quite-understanding things that smart people say.
But I have no hard feelings; I continue to read him anyway, for yuks.
If I recall, the comment in questions was: “I just don’t understand why most of you like him [i.e. Kris Bryant] so much. I think maybe you are queer for him.” That is one very smart, nuanced point right there. Well done.
Thanks for the context, Darth. I have my doubts that Alan is
a) 72 years old
b) a former professor
c) a Cubs fan
d) fighting cancer
But he is definitely obsessed with Brett Taylor.
Now, he apparently thinks I am Brett. Which has to be pretty funny to anybody who reads my comments at Bleacher Nation.
I just don’t understand why Alan is so obsessed with Brett. I think maybe he is queer for him. ;-D
No,Brett. It was a comment about the psychological, the emotional, quality of the reaction to the death of Jose Fernandez. I was sad about his death too, he was a favorite player of mine, but I didn’t overdo my reaction, turning it into a kind of fawning worship of the dead. I didn’t reflect that what I “loved about him most was his smile.”
Good to hear from you though. How’s that brilliant insight about the Cubs having an edge over the Brewers because if their easier schedule working out?
🙁
From Tolkien’s Hobbit, Uncle Mike explains. He liked shiny things; Uncle is comparing Hoyer to him.
Wouldn’t he be considered Sméagol, since he didn’t acquire the ring yet? Unless we’re counting the one Theo helped him get.
Perhaps a better comparison would be Smaug, who is more inherently attracted to gold and shiny things and literally hoards/protects them.
Deep thought, love it!
The Cubs hitters seem to have given up. They’re just dipping the shoulder and hitting lazy flies and jogging back to the dugout. They have all become apathetic snots like The Egregious Tucker. They are on their way to finally getting swept in a series, and it will be downhill from there.
It’s been going downhill for your predictions as the Cubs keep staying near the top
Where is that idiot who used to keep posting that Cubs fans should buckle up for a great season and October? I forget his name. One silver lining: he seems to have gone away.
He’s not too focused being stuck on a site making constant predictions on the Cubs’ downfall…. In other words: Enjoying life.
Hmm. You DO know that the Cubs are seven-and-a-half games out of first place now, don’t you?
Polishing his Bryzzo shirsey. Back in another 7 years
At this point, I have to wonder if Suzuki and PCA, despite their good RBI starts, will even make it to 100 RBIs. Their collapse has been almost total, and they seem to be just playing out the string.
Cubs will be lucky to make it to their goal of 90 wins. If they’re lucky enough to still make playoffs, it’ll be one and done. Adios Tucker; he’s overrated anyway.
This type of negative energy would be better used in politics.
The only negative energy here is every time the gutless Tucker comes up to bat. Bruce just tells the truth, and in fact the Cubs won’t end up anywhere near 90 wins.
What is the point of having three catchers? Is David Ross still the Cubs’ manager?
McGuire > Berti as a hitter and Castro > Berti for versatility. Amaya had to be brought up today because the 20 day rehab period was over.
@Bucket Number Six,
I’m not saying Berti is great or even good, but he’s less bad than McGuire. Berti has been a far more valuable player than McGuire over his career, plays way more positions, and is a much better baserunner. Having two utility infielders gives a manager a lot more flexibility than having three catchers who have never played any other positions in the majors with the exception Carson Kelly’s one inning at third base in 2019. But what do I know? There’s no reason to doubt Jed, is there?
Could be Counsell’s preference. Anyway, McGuire is now the 26th man. They must be keeping him around as insurance, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him DFA if they call up both Caissie and Ballesteros in September.
And for once, it looks like insurance has paid off.
I’ve been watching Cubs fans be pathetic saps for a long, long time. I think the general anticipation that has been building for the “big” series against the Brewers next week might be the single lamest Cubs fan fantasy I have ever had to watch.
The White Sox are still playing too, didn’t you forget?
Berti and Burdi DFAd on same day.
Here’s predicting one if not both end up back wearing pinstripes in the Bronx.
Calling Dumpster diving Trashman!!!
You can sort of see what’s going to happen, or might anyway: The Brewers will finally cool off a little in Cincy this weekend–with the Cubs desperate for the Reds to lose–and then start another streak against the Cubs next week.
I have a feeling there will still be some super-stupid Cubs fans rooting for the Reds against the Brewers this weekend.
Alan what is wrong with you? As of 11:00 central time on Tuesday night there are 75 comments on a Jon Berti post and you have 19 of them?? You’re terrible at pretending to be a Cubs fan we all know you’re a Brewers fan with AI helping you to sound like an unemployed ex-professor.
But it takes a special type of stalker level dedication to seriously comment 19 times on a Jon Berti post.
You’re a troll, you’re annoying and you’re weird as heck – but I think you need help!
I said the same thing and he muted me. Although you expressed it more eloquently.
You can see the let down on the field after the trade deadline when hoyer failed to deliver to put his team in better position!
Pca needs to sit like Suzuki Tucker Busch but problem is their backups not good unless Castro can play all positions at same time.
PCA should be sent down for a couple of weeks to try to get his swing back. Caissie should come up to replace him; Tucker or Suzuki can play center.
In January 1977, the Cubs stupidly traded Bill Madlock to the Giants for Bobby Murcer. Murcer was a little like Tucker–very overrated, very full of himself, very bad in the clutch. He ended up spending about 2-and-a-half seasons with the Cubs, and was only any good for the first half-season, the first half of 1977. But that was more than Tucker has given this team.
It’s interesting that someone like Milton Bradley is (rightly) remembered as a sort of epic free-agent fail–but he was no more of a fail than Tucker has been. Part of the reason might be that Tucker came in a trade, not as a free-agent, and most people cannot believe that a trade could be that one-sided. There might be other reasons too. But I’ve been watching since 1960, and I have no doubt that Tucker is the most disappointing player I have ever seen on the Cubs, relative to expectations or even in terms of absolute value. I cannot wait for him to be gone.
Tucker has a 4.1 fWAR
1977 Madlock 1.2 fWAR
Mercer .4
You on crack bud?
There was no such thing as fWAR when Madlock and “Mercer” played. Actually, there still isn’t. It is a stupid non-stat.
If you want to think Tucker is having a good year, you are certainly entitled to yiur own reality, CFS
Now, a couple teams with 70 wins last being Toronto. When will cubs join that exclusive club? They’re sinking fast with no end in sight
It’s scary to think Bruce wulff, Unclemike and Alan53 are in their late 60s acting like this in the comments…..
I’m 72. Alas, I have what Sandberg had, so I might not see 73, almost surely won’t see 74. So I certainly would love to see the Cubs make the playoffs again before I re-enter the cosmic consciousness, but I am unlikely to because of Hoyer’s cynicism (all that matters is selling the tickets) and incompetence (which Bruce and Uncle have been meticulously chronicling, while Stein and others have been making their snide, from-the-peanut-gallery dumb remarks and childish insults).
Sad to hear about that Alan53. May the Force Be With You!
TY
Dumped Berti, could Ernie and Elmo be next?
Can anybody explain to me why cubs are still in top 5?
Should say. Cubs designated Jed Hoyer for assignment
Cade Horton, what a guy, wheelin’and dealin’, rah rah rah. Go Cubs!
Kyle Tucker, makin’ it happen, hard-luck hittin’, bound for October. Go Cubs!
Ian Happ, go-go Happer, switch-hittin’ wonder, big-game winner. Go Cubs! !
And all that’s left is what the little Berti left on the rock. (special thanks to Mike Krukow)
When was last time, cubs plated runs in single inning without homer?
Feel sorry for Horton because
cubs up and mostly down vaunted bullpen in game
With Amaya injury, will it be Hello Berit… again lol
The smart play would be to bring up Triantos who has played every position besides P and C but wait…… I forgot we don’t do that. There has to be some pathetic POS who is on waivers oh wait I forgot Human Herpes is back in Nicky Lopez. Case Closed.
Feel bad for Miggy. Sprained left ankle. X-rays negative .
Contrary to the authors comments, Berti has in fact played 1B. He played 1B just last year for the Yankees in the playoffs. Played very well for someone who had never played the position before