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Rangers Sign Charlie Culberson To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers announced that they’ve signed infielder/outfielder Charlie Culberson to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training.

Culberson, 31, has spent the past three seasons with the Braves, shaking off a slow start that drew the ire of some fans to emerge as something of a cult hero in Atlanta thanks to some memorable clutch hits. Culberson certainly has a flair for the dramatic, having connected on several walk-off homers in his career — including a division-clinching walk-off shot for the Dodgers on Vin Scully’s final call at Dodger Stadium.

Though he was an oft-used utilityman for the Braves in 2018-19, Culberson tallied just seven plate appearances in 2020 and collected just one hit. Dating back to 2016, however, he’s totaled 556 plate appearances between the Dodgers and Braves, batting a combined .266/.312/.440 slash. Culberson has logged most of his time in the Majors at either shortstop or in left field, but he’s played all four infield spots and both outfield corners in the big leagues (in addition to 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball on the mound).

Joe Musgrove Drawing Increased Trade Interest

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The Pirates traded Josh Bell to the Nationals last week, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that Pittsburgh righty Joe Musgrove is drawing “keen” interest and could get a look from clubs that missed on Blake Snell (not that the two are comparable in terms of track record). Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers a similar sentiment, tweeting that multiple sources have told him they believe “Musgrove is next” for Pirates as they look to continue their rebuilding effort.

Musgrove, who turned 28 earlier this month, is among the most obvious trade candidates on the market. He could very well have been dealt this past summer had he not landed on the injured list with what proved to be a fairly minor triceps issue. Musgrove missed about three weeks with the injury and, upon returning, rattled off his best starts of the season.

The triceps issue and the shortened slate of games in 2020 combined to limit Musgrove to 39 2/3 innings. He was solid when on the mound, however, pitching to a 3.86 ERA and 3.42 ERA with a 33.1 percent strikeout rate that shattered his previous career-high (21.9 percent). Musgrove saved the best for last in 2020, closing out the year 13 shutout innings against the Cardinals and Indians. He yielded just six hits and two walks against 21 strikeouts in that time — the best two-game stretch of his career. Musgrove upped not only the usage of his slider and his curveball in 2020 but also his spin rate on both pitches, which may help to explain the uptick in missed bats.

Musgrove headlined the return in the trade that sent Gerrit Cole from Pittsburgh to Houston back in Jan. 2018, and just under three years later, he finds himself in a similar spot. While he obviously is not the same caliber of pitcher as Cole, Musgrove is a prime-aged starter with a quality track record who is under control for two more seasons at a highly reasonable rate. He’s owed a raise on last year’s $2.8MM salary, although the injury will suppress some of his earning power in arbitration, and is controllable through the 2022 season. An extension doesn’t seem likely to come from the Pirates, though an acquiring club could have interest in trying to keep him long term.

Musgrove was the No. 46 overall pick by the Blue Jays back in 2011 and was regarded as a Top 100 prospect prior to his Major League debut. He’s been a solid mid-rotation arm to this point in his career, though his overall 2020 results and his excellent finish might lead to some optimism that he still has another gear into which he can tap. Since being traded to Pittsburgh, Musgrove has given the Pirates 325 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA/3.69 FIP ball, averaging 8.6. K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 1.05 HR/9  to go along with a 45.9 percent ground-ball rate.

The Blue Jays are on the hunt for arms and nearly acquired Musgrove this past summer, so it stands to reason that they’d have interest again. Others known to be in the market for starting pitching include the Angels, Mets, Mariners, Twins, Red Sox and Giants. Given Musgrove’s affordable salary, he’d be a logical fit on any contender or hopeful contender looking to add to its rotation.

JC Ramirez Signs With CPBL’s Fubon Guardians

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Former Angels righty JC Ramirez has agreed to a deal with the Fubon Guardian’s in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, per an announcement from the team. Ramirez himself tweeted about the new agreement.

The 32-year-old Ramirez didn’t pitch in the Majors this past season after signing a minor league pact to return for what would’ve been a fifth season in the Halos organization. He was a solid member of the Angels’ rotation back in 2017, pitching to a 4.15 ERA over the life of 147 1/3 innings (27 games, including 24 starts). That showing seemed to set the stage for Ramirez to take hold of a rotation spot full-time beginning in 2018, but he suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament and underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts in 2018.

Ramirez returned to the Majors in the second half of the 2019 season but pitched in just five games before being removed from the team’s 40-man roster. In all, he’s pitched just 14 2/3 innings since that promising showing back in 2017.

Beyond his work with the Angels, Ramirez has seen brief MLB time with the Phillies, D-backs, Mariners and Reds. In 288 1/3 innings as a big leaguer, he’s logged a 4.71 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.44 HR/9 and a 49.8 percent ground-ball rate.

Padres Seen As Front-Runners For Ha-Seong Kim

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9:41am: Sherman now tweets that the Padres are viewed as the favorites for Kim. A deal has not yet been completed, but the two sides have discussed a $7-8MM annual value over a term fewer than six years. If a deal is completed, Kim would step in at second base, with Cronenworth likely moving into the outfield.

9:18am: Kim is on a flight to the United States this morning, per Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. While Daniel Kim of DKTV and ESPN tweets that Kim is headed to the U.S. to take a physical, that doesn’t mean he’s selected a team just yet. Kim needs to be present to complete a physical prior to his posting window closing, so it makes sense that he’s headed to North America at this time.

Meanwhile, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Blue Jays and Padres are considered to be front-runners for Kim, with the Red Sox still looming as a possible but less-likely destination. The Mets and Reds have been “intrigued” by Kim, Sherman adds, but aren’t viewed as favorites to sign him.

8:55am: It’s been less than 12 hours since the Padres agreed to their blockbuster acquisition of Blake Snell in a trade with the Rays, but it seems that’s not the only major roster move general manager A.J. Preller hopes to complete before the New Year. ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that San Diego is “taking a serious run” at free-agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim, who was posted for Major League clubs by the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes.

Unlike most stars who are posted for MLB teams to bid on, Kim is squarely in the midst of his prime years. The 25-year-old has been a steady contributor for the Heroes throughout his career but has seen his offensive output explode over the past two seasons, even as the KBO has altered the composition of its ball in an effort to cut back on the league’s extremely hitter-friendly tendencies. Since 2019, Kim has batted .307/.393/.500 with 49 home runs, 62 doubles, three triples and a 56-for-62 showing in stolen base attempts.

The Padres, of course, don’t have a pressing need for an infielder thanks to the presence of Manny Machado at third base, Fernando Tatis Jr. at shortstop and emergent Jake Cronenworth at second base. Kim, however, has experience at both shortstop and third base, and he’s viewed as a perfectly viable option at second base as well. He could give the Padres — or another club — a versatile super-utility piece who allows them rest their regular infielders a day per week or step into a larger role in the case of an injury. It’s also worth noting that Cronenworth, excellent 2020 debut notwithstanding, still has just 194 Major League plate appearances under his belt.

There’s no clear front-runner for Kim at this point, although his market is nearing its conclusion. His 30-day posting period began on Dec. 2 and must be concluded by Jan. 1 at 5pm ET. The Blue Jays have made an offer of at least five years, and reports out of South Korea have indicated that he has multiple five-year offers in hand. It’s not clear whether the Padres have made a five-year proposal, but chatter surrounding Kim figures to pick up steam over the next few days as bidding for his services draws to a close.

Pirates Trade Josh Bell To Nationals

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The Nationals have a new first baseman. In an out-of-the-blue Christmas Eve swap, Washington has acquired Josh Bell from the Pirates in exchange for right-handed pitchers Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean, according to announcements from both clubs.

Josh Bell

Bell, 28, fills the Nationals’ void at first base and gives the club a switch-hitting power bat to pair with Juan Soto in the heart of the order. Like most of the Pirates’ lineup, Bell struggled in 2020, hitting just .226/.305/.364 with a career-high 26.5 percent strikeout rate. However, outside of last year’s shortened season, Bell has been a productive big league hitter throughout his career.

The Pirates selected Bell with the 61st overall pick in 2011 and paid him a then-record $5MM signing bonus, shattering the recommended slot value to convince Bell to forgo his college commitment. The 6’4″ slugger rated as one of the game’s top prospects throughout his minor league tenure and was a productive hitter each season from 2016-18, posting a combined .260/.348/.436 batting line — good for a 110 wRC+ (put another way: overall production that was 10 percent better than a league-average hitter).

In 2019, Bell erupted with a breakout, 37-homer campaign that led to his first All-Star nod. Tapping into the raw power for which he’d long been touted, Bell raked at a .277/.367/.569 clip, adding in 37 doubles and three triples while plating 116 runs in just 143 games played. It’s worth noting that he tailed off in the second half, and those struggles carried over into the aforementioned down year in 2020. The Nats are buying in the belief that Bell can be much closer to that 2019 All-Star who looked to be emerging as one of the league’s premier power bats.

Bell is eligible for arbitration for the second time this winter and has yet to settle on a salary for the 2021 campaign. He’s owed a raise on last year’s $4.8MM salary and is now under Nationals control through the 2022 season

The Bell acquisition gives the Nats an everyday option at first base, which could complicate any potential reunion with Ryan Zimmerman, although the two could certainly form a quality pairing at the position. Although Bell is a switch-hitter, he’s vastly better from the left side of the dish, so if the Nats want to bring Zimmerman back for a 16th season, “Mr. National” could move into a bench role and spell Bell against tougher lefties. Of course, if the National League brings back the designated hitter for the 2021 season, Bell could fill that role full-time for the Nats. That could be a best-case scenario for Washington, as Bell is regarded as a well below-average defender at his position.

In return for two years of Bell, the Pirates will net an immediate rotation piece in the 26-year-old Crowe — a former second-round pick himself (2017). The 6’2″, 228-pound Crowe made his big league debut in 2020, starting three games for the Nats but being tagged for 11 runs in 8 1/3 innings. That’s a minuscule sample on which to judge Crowe, however. The right-hander has been considered one of the Nats’ best prospects since the day he was drafted. While he’s had knee and elbow injuries in the past — including Tommy John surgery while pitching at the University of South Carolina —  he set career-highs in starts (26) and innings (149 1/3) during his last full season in 2019.

Baseball America recently ranked Crowe 10th among Nationals farmhands, and was the team’s No. 3 prospect at MLB.com on their midseason rankings and No. 4 at FanGraphs. Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel wrote in that FanGraphs report that Crowe has three above-average pitches and a promising changeup but “imprecise control” of his arsenal and some durability concerns because of that injury track record. Crowe was hammered for a 6.17 ERA in his lone Triple-A experience, although that came while pitching in an outrageously hitter-friendly setting in 2019 — both due to the juiced ball in Triple-A and the conditions of Fresno’s park in the Pacific Coast League.

It remains to be seen whether the Pirates will plug Crowe directly into the rotation or give him some additional time in Triple-A in 2021, but it’d be a surprise if he weren’t called to the big leagues at some point next season. Pittsburgh currently projects to have Joe Musgrove, Mitch Keller, Steven Brault, Chad Kuhl and a returning Jameson Taillon in its rotation, though Musgrove, Brault and Kuhl have all been discussed in trade talks as well. Further transactions between now and Opening Day could very well to alter that composition to some extent.

The 19-year-old Yean is a much longer-term play for the Pirates, although it’s arguable that he’s the more appealing piece of the deal. Baseball America’s updated ranking of the Nationals’ farm has Yean two spots higher than Crowe, touting an “explosive” fastball that reaches 97 mph and could climb higher as he continues to grow. Yean throws both a four-seamer and two-seamer in addition to a slider and a changeup. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018, Yean has the type of velocity, breaking ball and projectable frame typical of first- and second-round high school draftees, Longenhagen wrote for his Nats rankings at FanGraphs.

The Bell trade could be the first of several for the rebuilding Pirates this winter. Musgrove remains one of the more appealing arms who could change hands this offseason, and any of Brault, Kuhl, reliever Richard Rodriguez, catcher Jacob Stallings and second baseman Adam Frazier stand out as viable trade pieces. No one in the NL Central is making an aggressive push to seize the division crown, but the Pirates are the only one of the quintet who are in the midst of a full-scale rebuild. Further change is surely on the horizon under second-year general manager Ben Cherington.

The Nats, meanwhile, still have work to do. Adding a corner outfielder, at least one back-of-the-rotation starter — particularly now that they’ve subtracted Crowe from the mix — and perhaps an upgrade at catcher could all be on the horizon for GM Mike Rizzo and his staff as the Nats look to get back to their winning ways in 2021.

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported that the two teams were closing in on a trade. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that an agreement of Bell for two young pitchers had been reached. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman added the names of the two pitchers going to Pittsburgh.

NPB/KBO Notes: Dice-K, Mengden, Almonte, Yoon

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Daisuke Matsuzaka is still going. The 40-year-old righty signed a one-year deal with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball earlier this week, according to the Japan Times, rejoining the club for which he starred from 1999-2006. Matsuzaka was with the Lions in 2020 as well, although he spent the year rehabbing from back surgery that prevented him from pitching. The former Red Sox right-hander returned to NPB in 2015 and has since pitched with the SoftBank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons. He’s thrown just 5 1/3 innings since the conclusion of the 2018 season due to injuries, but he’ll hope for a healthier go of it as his career comes full circle with the Lions in 2021.

Some more notes on former big leaguers, the KBO and NPB…

  • Former Athletics right-hander Daniel Mengden has held negotiations with a club in the Korea Baseball Organization, per a report from South Korea’s Naver Sports (Korean language link). There’s no indication a deal has been completed yet. Mengden spent his first five professional seasons in Oakland, where he pitched to a 4.64 ERA/4.58 FIP and posted 6.66 K/9 against 3.03 BB/9 over 302 2/3 innings. He only threw 12 1/3 frames last year after undergoing three offseason surgeries (two to repair an intestinal issue, another on his elbow). The A’s outrighted the 27-year-old in September.
  • The KBO’s KT Wiz have signed outfielder Zoilo Almonte to a one-year, $525K guarantee with up to $250K in incentives, Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency relays. The ex-Yankees farmhand, 31, spent the previous three seasons with Chunichi, with which he slashed .316/.375/.484 and hit 31 home runs in 967 plate appearances. As Yoo notes, Almonte will replace 2020 KBO MVP Mel Rojas Jr., who left KT for the NPB’s Hanshin Tigers earlier this month.
  • Retired righty Suk-min Yoon is attempting to become a professional golfer in Korea, Yoo reports. Yoon was a highly successful starter with the KBO’s Kia Tigers, which led the Orioles to sign him to a contract worth a guaranteed $5.75MM over three years entering the 2014 campaign. He never threw a pitch for the Orioles, though, instead spending the year at Triple-A, and the O’s released him in 2015. Yoon returned to the Tigers and pitched in 2015, ’16 and ’18, but he hung up his cleats after a shoulder injury derailed his career.

Red Sox Sign Matt Andriese

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2:07pm: Andriese is guaranteed $1.85MM in 2021 plus at least a $250K buyout on a $3.5MM option for the 2022 season, tweets Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. He can earn up to $500K worth of incentives each season if he tops 150 innings, and his 2022 salary would rise by $1MM if he hits that mark in 2021.

1:04pm: The Red Sox have agreed to terms on a contract with right-hander Matt Andriese, per  a club announcement. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will receive a one-year, Major League deal with a club option for the 2022 season. He’s guaranteed $2.1MM on the contract and could earn up to $7.35MM if the 2022 option is exercised, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter links).

Matt Andriese | Angels Baseball/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network

The signing reunites the 31-year-old righty with Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, who played a hand in the Rays’ 2014 acquisition of Andriese in a trade with the Padres. Andriese would go on to make his MLB debut as a Ray in 2015, and in parts of four seasons in Tampa Bay he worked to a 4.30 ERA and 4.13 FIP with 7.8 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.27 HR/9 and a 45.6 percent ground-ball rate.

Traded from Tampa Bay to Arizona prior to the 2018 deadline, Andriese has struggled to regain his footing, however. He’d been a swingman with the Rays, working both as a traditional starter and multi-inning reliever, but the D-backs moved him into a full-time relief role with lackluster results. It was a similar story this past season in Anaheim after the Diamondbacks traded Andriese to the Angels.

In 121 2/3 innings since being traded by the Rays, Andriese owns a 5.53 ERA, albeit with a much better 3.95 xFIP. He’s seen his strikeout rate (9.6 K/9) improve considerably in that time, and Andriese still possesses above-average spin on both his four-seamer and his curveball, which may have been appealing for the Red Sox.

Andriese is capable of working out of the ’pen or in the rotation, which figures to be key for the Sox with so many question marks surrounding the health of their starters. Chris Sale is on the mend from Tommy John surgery, while Nathan Eovaldi has a lengthy injury history and Eduardo Rodriguez missed all of 2020 following a bout with Covid-19 and a subsequent myocarditis diagnosis.

Oscar Colas Declared Free Agent By Major League Baseball

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1:47pm: Colas will work out for teams early in 2021, reports ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (Twitter links), but there’s a “real shot” he’ll wait a year to sign in order to get the largest deal possible. Upwards of a third of the league has some interest in Colas, McDaniel adds, with the White Sox and Astros among the interested parties.

8:50am: Major League Baseball has declared outfielder/pitcher Oscar Colas a free agent, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). The 22-year-old was recently declared a free agent by Japan’s SoftBank Hawks after an ugly dispute between player and team. Colas and his family publicly alleged that he was deceived when signing his original contract — a deal he believed to be three years in length but one that held several club option years. Jim Allen outlined the saga in a thorough piece for the Kyodo News earlier this summer, and fans unfamiliar with Colas and his story will want to read Allen’s story for full context on the situation.

Turning to the future for Colas, he’ll now be eligible to sign with a team beginning on Jan. 15, 2021. That’s the official kickoff date for the 2020-21 international signing period — a date that was pushed back from its typical July 2 commencement as teams placed their focus and resources elsewhere while seeking to ramp up for shortened 2020 season.

Given his age and lack of professional experience, Colas is restricted to signing a minor league contract and is subject to international bonus pools. A team cannot exceed its league-allotted bonus pool in order to sign Colas, and teams aren’t allowed to trade international pool space for the 2020-21 period (another concept agreed to as the league sorted out return-to-play conditions prior to the season).

That, as Baseball America’s Ben Badler explained yesterday, leads to a tricky situation for Colas. Using the White Sox as an example, Badler writes that between outfielder Yoelki Cespedes, who recently agreed to sign with the Sox once the signing period officially begins, and prior agreements with righty Norge Vera and others, most of the ChiSox’ pool is already used up. Most teams throughout the league are in a similar spot, per Badler.

That’s not uncommon, as most deals for international amateurs are agreed to months or even years in advance. But it’s also not a good thing for Colas, who is only now becoming a free agent at a time when most teams have committed the bulk of their signing pools to other players. Badler suggests that Colas could consider waiting all the way until the 2021-22 signing period to agree to terms with a deal, although it’s likely that some clubs will try to sway him to sign sooner than that.

There’s a good bit of hype surrounding Colas, some of which stems from the dubious “Cuban Ohtani” moniker associated with him. That seems an unfair and frankly misleading nickname to place on a player who, despite reportedly possessing a fastball that can touch 95 mph, has pitched just 3 1/3 professional innings, all of which came as a 19-year-old during the 2018-19 Cuban National Series. Colas didn’t pitch during his time with the Hawks. Ohtani, meanwhile, had 543 innings of 2.52 ERA ball with 624 strikeouts in NPB by the time he jumped to the Majors as a 23-year-old.

Colas spent the bulk of his time in Japan with the Hawks’ minor league club in the Japan Western League, which is certainly sensible given that he was just 18 upon reporting to the Hawks for his first season. He struggled in his first Western League campaign but raked at a .302/.350/.516 clip in 2019, earning a promotion to the Hawks’ big league roster as a 20-year-old. Colas homered in his first plate appearance after the promotion and went 5-for-18 with that homer, a walk and six strikeouts in 21 trips to the plate. During his first two years with the Hawks, he’d also suit up during the winter for his pro team in Cuba. Overall, in parts of three seasons in Cuba’s top league, Colas is a .305/.381/.487 hitter.

FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen doesn’t have Colas near the top of his international prospect rankings, writing that he’s a “more stable prospect as a lefty first base/designated hitter/right field type” than as a pitcher. That’s not to say that a team won’t try to develop him on the mound, but comparisons to Ohtani simply don’t seem appropriate.

For all the intrigue surrounding the 22-year-old Colas, there’s also considerable uncertainty, both as to when he might actually sign and whether clubs will view him as a legitimate two-way option or prefer to focus on developing his abilities as a hitter and outfielder.

Reds Claim Deivy Grullon

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The Reds have claimed catcher Deivy Grullon off outright waivers from the Red Sox, per announcements from both teams. Boston’s 40-man roster is full (following this afternoon’s signing of right-hander Matt Andriese), while Cincinnati’s 40-man roster is now at 33 players.

Grullon, 24, has made extremely brief appearances in the Majors with both the Phillies (2019) and Red Sox (2020) over the past two seasons. In 13 plate appearances, he’s collected two hits, including a double, with a walk and three punchouts. There’s little to glean from such a small sample, but Grullon carries a .283/.354/.496 slash in 457 Triple-A plate appearances and a .264/.302/.494 line in a similar body of work in Double-A.

Baseball America ranked Grullon among the best prospects in the Phillies’ system each year from 2014-20, right up until the Phils designated him for assignment in September and lost him on waivers to the Red Sox. While he never cracked the organization’s top 10 and was generally considered to be in the back half of the club’s top farmhands. Above-average power to his pull side and a strong throwing arm are regarded as his best tools.

Grullon still has minor league options remaining, so he can give the Reds an additional depth option behind veteran Tucker Barnhart (assuming he isn’t traded as part of the team’s efforts to pare back payroll), young Tyler Stephenson and utilityman Kyle Farmer. Cincinnati non-tendered Curt Casali earlier this month.

Cubs, Matt Dermody Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Matt Dermody, MLBTR has learned. The 30-year-old southpaw will be invited to Major League Spring Training to compete for a bullpen job.

Dermody opened the 2020 season pitching on the independent circuit but caught the Cubs’ attention with a strong showing, leading to a minor league deal in August. The Cubs called him up to the big league roster later in the summer, and he pitched one scoreless inning before being taken off the roster. That marked Dermody’s first MLB experience since a 22 1/3-inning stint with the Blue Jays in 2017, when he posted a 4.43 ERA with 15 strikeouts and five walks.

Dermody has a rather limited track record at the MLB level, having pitched just 26 1/3 innings overall, but he’s appeared in parts of four Triple-A seasons and pitched to a 4.12 ERA in 87 1/3 frames. Overall, in seven minor league seasons, the former 28th-rounder has a 3.68 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. At the moment, the Cubs’ only left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster are Kyle Ryan and Brad Wieck, so it’s not a surprise to see them adding some left-handed depth to bring to camp.

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