Cubs To Place Miguel Amaya On Injured List With Sprained Ankle

Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya had to be carted off the field during tonight’s matchup with the Blue Jays. He hurt his left ankle running to first base in the eighth inning. After the game, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times) that Amaya’s X-rays thankfully came back negative for a broken bone, but the backstop still sprained his ankle and will require a trip to the IL. While he has avoided the worst, this is nonetheless a tough blow for Amaya, who was playing in his first game back after suffering an oblique strain in May.

Chicago’s decision to keep Reese McGuire on the roster after reinstating Amaya now seems almost eerily prescient. The Cubs signed the veteran backup catcher to a minor league deal in the offseason and selected his contract when Amaya first went on the IL in May. One might have expected they would designate McGuire for assignment went Amaya returned, but instead, it was utility man Jon Berti who lost his roster spot.

Now the Cubs can simply go back to the catching setup they had been using for the past few months, a setup that was working perfectly well. Carson Kelly will remain the primary catcher with McGuire as his backup. Kelly has cooled down after a red-hot start, but he’s still hitting perfectly well for his position, as is McGuire. The two combined for a .723 OPS and 103 wRC+ during Amaya’s first IL stint, and they’ve both played strong defense behind the plate as well.

None of this is to say the Cubs won’t miss Amaya. The 26-year-old produced an .819 OPS and 126 wRC+ in 27 games prior to his oblique injury. He has a .797 OPS and 122 wRC+ in 83 games dating back to last July. A high BABIP and a low xwOBA suggest that degree of success is unsustainable, and the jury is still out on his defense, but that’s just the thing: Amaya is four years younger than Kelly or McGuire, with a lot less experience under his belt. He still has room to grow, and the Cubs want to figure out what kind of role he can play for their club over the next several years. It’s a lot harder to do that when he’s stuck on the shelf.

The Cubs have not yet addressed Amaya’s timeline, but it is certainly possible, and probably quite likely, that he’ll be back before the end of the year. Once rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September, it will be easier for the team to roster all three of Kelly, McGuire, and Amaya, should McGuire still be playing well if/when Amaya is ready to return.