The Cubs have signed right-hander Joe Ross to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had become a free agent about a week ago when the Phillies released him.
Ross, 32, missed the 2022 and 2023 seasons due to Tommy John surgery. He was back on the mound in 2024 and had a nice bounceback season. He tossed 74 innings for the Brewers in a swing role, allowing 3.77 earned runs per nine. His 20.6% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 41% ground ball rate were all close to league average.
The Phils signed him to a one-year, $4MM deal, hoping to get that kind of performance out of him this year, but it didn’t work out. He gave Philly 51 frames with a 5.12 ERA. His ground ball rate ticked up to 45.5% and his walk rate improved to 7.9% but his strikeout rate fell to 17.1%.
Although his results have backed up this year, he’s a sensible depth add for the Cubs, as they have seen their pitching depth thinned a bit recently. Prior to the deadline, their main rotation addition was Michael Soroka. Unfortunately, a shoulder strain put him on the injured list just a few days after that swap. A few weeks after that, a strained groin put Jameson Taillon on the shelf.
To cover for those injuries, swingman Colin Rea has entered the rotation, alongside Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Cade Horton and Javier Assad. There are some workload concerns in that group. Boyd is up to 159 1/3 innings this year, which is more than he tossed in the three previous seasons combined. Horton has logged 127 2/3 innings between the majors and minors this year, which is more than his workload in 2023 and 2024 combined. Imanaga missed some time due to a hamstring strain, which has perhaps led to his drop in velocity and strikeout rate compared to last year.
The Cubs are clearly aware that they could use some more arms. They claimed Aaron Civale off waivers from the White Sox a few days ago. He pitched three innings of long relief behind Rea in yesterday’s game. Perhaps Soroka or Taillon can come off the injured list in the coming weeks but Ross gives the club an extra layer of veteran protection for now.
The log lists Ross’s signing date as September 1st. If that’s true, he wouldn’t be eligible to pitch in the postseason for the Cubs. It’s possible the deal was actually signed late on August 31st but didn’t become public until later. If that’s the case, then Ross would be postseason eligible with the Cubs.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
The Cubs will be in triage mode for the remainder of the regular season. They want to rest arms and try to coast into the top wild card slot, and at this time of the year, with this kind of team, this is the type of maneuver that’s left to them. This, and perhaps bring up another rookie from the minors to help if they see good fit.
Said rookie would have to be on the 40 man to get called up
Gollum always has to have at least one scratch off lottery ticket in his pants at all times. Lose 1 sign 1.
The Cubs aren’t viewing Ross as a scratch ticket, but as a band-aid. And he replaces Soroka, who perhaps rates as a gauze bandage, if we’re being kind.
This is the last month of the regular season. Scratch ticket potential doesn’t factor into decisions anymore, only resilience.
They already got Civale for that.
I hate the idea that I might be treading into jinx territory, but there’s a real likelihood that they’ll need more than Civale. Rea and Boyd both look like they’re wearing down, and Caleb looks great but with his total innings, how can we not fear that his arm will shatter into a 1,000 pieces with his next pitch?
Ross is a low-cost, low-investment insurance policy. Hard to get worked up about it. Hopefully things shake out in a way that we forget he’s even around.
Your Gollum “schtick” has run its course, dude. Give it a rest.
Agree, this is kind of a dumb signing–in the sense that it’s hard to imagine a situation in which Ross is a good choice to use in a major-league game, regular season or, if they make it, postseason.
Jed
Dumpster diving
Lemme guess, keysox: You’re thinking he should trade for Shohei Ohtani this fine September 2, instead. If only he were as smart as you, to think of that!
Oh good lord.. another useless, boring Sux troll who couldn’t come up with an original comment if his life depended on it.
This is nothing but minor league teams in general needing warm bodies to eat innings. Twice in August, I saw visiting minor league teams send out a minor league catcher to pitch the home 8th inning because they had run out of pitchers who were cleared to pitch that night. A 4-3 less turned into an 8-4 loss one night, and the other night a 4-3 deficit turned into a 5-4 loss and the insurance run given up was the margin of victory.
As a fan, it just reinforces the fact that the organizations don’t care about minor league games. MLB and the MLBPA should reset the organizational limit from 160 players to 175 this off-season and increase minor league roster sizes.
The Jed Hoyer sore arms disabled list tour continues
The Cubs love signing pitchers who had Tommy John surgery before.
Bargain Bin Jed at it again.
He was great in:
“Car 54, Where Are You” & “It’s About Time”.
Good pick up he’s a great pitcher.
Hoyer’s operating like a kid with a $25 Target gift card rampaging through the clearance isle.
With the gift card set to expire in less than a week.
Why in hell is Turner still on the 40, and please don’t tell me about his leadership….where was that leadership the past 40-50 games?!?
“The log lists Ross’s signing date as September 1st. If that’s true, he wouldn’t be eligible to pitch in the postseason for the Cubs. It’s possible the deal was actually signed late on August 31st but didn’t become public until later. If that’s the case, then Ross would be postseason eligible with the Cubs.”
This year, the rule changed to having to have a player signed by noon on September 1st in order to be eligible for the playoffs. So, if he was signed before noon (which I’m pretty sure he was), he is eligible to replace someone on the Cubs’ 40-man roster. The same is true for Austin Gomber.