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Sandy Alomar Sr. Passes Away

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Former All-Star infielder Sandy Alomar Sr. has passed away, per an announcement from the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. He was 81 years old and would have turned 82 this coming weekend.

The father of big leaguers Roberto Alomar and Sandy Alomar Jr., Sandy Sr. enjoyed a 15-year playing career of his own. From 1964-78, he suited up for the Angels, Yankees, White Sox, Braves, Rangers and Mets. The elder Alomar made the 1970 All-Star team as a member of the Angels during a season in which he batted .251/.302/.293 and played in all 162 games while providing quality defense and 35 stolen bases.

In all, Alomar hit .245/.290/.288 in 5160 major league plate appearances across his decade and a half as a big league player. He played primarily second base but also logged more than 1200 innings at shortstop and made a handful of appearances at the hot corner. Alomar was known for his glove and speed more than his bat; he totaled just 13 career home runs, 126 doubles and 19 triples but piled up 227 career stolen bases. He’s one of just 300 players to ever steal at least 225 bags in his career.

Beyond his career as a player, Alomar logged parts of 16 season as a coach in the major leagues, spending time with the Padres (third base coach), Cubs (first base coach), Rockies (third base coach) and Mets (bench coach, first base coach). He also managed in the minor league ranks for both the Cubs and the Mets and spent several seasons coaching and managing teams at home in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

Our condolences go out to each of the organizations Alomar impacted, as well as the Alomar family and friends, and the countless fans he accrued over a baseball career that spanned more than 50 years.

N.L. Notes: Horton, Chourio, Bader

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Cubs right-hander Cade Horton is potentially making some progress. According to Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, he will throw off a mound this week as the club decides whether or not to include him on the NLCS roster, if they advance that far.

Horton debuted this year and hit the ground running. He logged 118 innings for the Cubs with a 2.67 earned run average. Unfortunately, his season ended on a sour note. Horton suffered a rib fracture in September and it was immediately apparent that he would miss at least one playoff series. The Cubs survived the Wild Card round without him but he still wasn’t on the roster for their NLDS matchup against the Brewers.

The Chicago rotation is feeling thin at the moment, composed of Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon. Boyd just got rocked by the Brewers on Saturday. He was charged with six runs, only two of them being earned, as he failed to get out of the first inning. The Cubs went on to lose 9-3. Imanaga and Taillon were both decent this year but both had subpar strikeout rates. If the Cubs can hang on for a best-of-seven NLCS, getting Horton in there to take some pressure of those guys could be a difference maker.

Mooney also adds that the Cubs expect Horton to earn a full year of service time, which is understandable. As a top prospect who was promoted late enough that he wasn’t slated to get a full service year, he can earn that full year retroactively by finishing top two in N.L. Rookie of the Year voting. Horton and Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin are considered the frontrunners for that award, so Horton will likely get that full service year. That would put him on track to reach free agency after 2030 instead of 2031.

Some other injury updates from around the league…

  • Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio is in tonight’s lineup, batting leadoff against the Cubs. Chourio left the first game due to some right hamstring tightness. A subsequent MRI led to results which Pat Murphy described as “inconclusive,” adding that it’s “not a serious hamstring strain.” That implied that Chourio did indeed strain his hamstring, though the club is apparently comfortable running him out there tonight. Murphy said today, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that Chourio is not 100% and they’ll take him out of the game if it appears necessary.
  • Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader was removed from his club’s first NLDS game against the Dodgers due to a groin injury. He’s not in tonight’s Game Two lineup but he could be available to pinch hit. Manager Rob Thomson passed the new on to reporters, including Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bader is an excellent defender and he hit .305/.361/.463 after being acquired from the Twins at the deadline, so the Phillies will obviously want him back in there as soon as possible. The Phils have Otto Kemp, Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos in the lineup tonight from left to right. Max Kepler is also in the mix, though he’s probably not starting tonight since lefty Blake Snell is on the bump for the Dodgers.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

Cubs, Brewers Announce NLDS Rosters

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The NL Division Series between the Cubs and Brewers gets started today, with Matthew Boyd facing Freddy Peralta in the Game 1 pitching matchup.  Here are the full 26-man rosters for both teams in the clash of NL Central rivals…

Cubs catchers: Moises Ballesteros, Carson Kelly, Reese McGuire
Infielders: Michael Busch, Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, Dansby Swanson, Justin Turner
Outfielders: Kevin Alcantara, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker
Utilityman: Willi Castro
Left-handed pitchers: Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar
Right-handed pitchers: Aaron Civale, Ben Brown, Brad Keller, Andrew Kittredge, Daniel Palencia, Colin Rea, Michael Soroka, Jameson Taillon

Brewers catchers: William Contreras, Danny Jansen
Infielders: Jake Bauers, Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, Joey Ortiz, Brice Turang, Andrew Vaughn
Outfielders: Jackson Chourio, Isaac Collins, Sal Frelick, Brandon Lockridge, Blake Perkins, Christian Yelich
Left-handed pitchers: Aaron Ashby, Robert Gasser, Jared Koenig, Jose Quintana
Right-handed pitchers: Grant Anderson, Nick Mears, Trevor Megill, Jacob Misiorowski, Freddy Peralta, Chad Patrick, Quinn Priester, Abner Uribe

The Cubs are going with almost the exact roster of 14 position players and 12 pitchers that were used in their wild card series victory over the Padres, except Brown will take the place of left-hander Taylor Rogers.  Manager Craig Counsell told MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and other reporters that Chicago opted for Brown over Rogers and Javier Assad due to Brown’s strikeout ability, and on how Brown projects to match up against the Brewers.  This leaves Pomeranz and Thielbar as the only left-handed relievers to be mixed and matched against Milwaukee’s left-handed bats.

The Brew Crew’s first roster of the postseason doesn’t contain too many surprises, as there was already an expectation that the team would use Misiorowski and Gasser as a pair of intriguing rookies out of the bullpen.  Milwaukee is also deploying an alignment of 14 position players and 12 pitchers, but one position player that didn’t make the cut was Rhys Hoskins.  This is also not a shock given how Hoskins has been essentially supplanted by Vaughn as the first-choice option at first base.  A thumb sprain and a bone bruise cost Hoskins over two months of the season, and after returning from the injured list in September, Hoskins received only sparing playing time.

A pair of prominent injured pitchers weren’t included on either team’s NLDS roster.  Counsell said Cade Horton won’t be involved in the series even as an injury replacement, which isn’t surprising since Horton (who is recovering from a rib fracture) wouldn’t be eligible to be activated from the 15-day IL until Game 5.  Brewers manager Pat Murphy told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and other reporters yesterday that Brandon Woodruff might still be available to pitch later in the postseason if the Crew advances deeper into October, but the veteran right’s lat strain will keep him out of the Division Series.

14 Players Elect Free Agency

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents.  Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back.  These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion.  These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielder

Pitchers

Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images

Poll: Who Will Win The Wild Card Series?

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The 2025 regular season is in the books, and the baseball world is now gearing up for what might be a wild postseason.  It took until Game 162 to finalize the full slate of playoff teams and matchups, but now we know the eight clubs who will take part in the wild card round that begins on Tuesday, as “October baseball” gets started a bit early this year on September 30.  All WCS matchups are best-of-three, and will take place entirely in the home ballpark of the higher-seeded team.

The Guardians will meet the Tigers again after Cleveland posted a 5-1 record against Detroit over a pair of series in the last two weeks, contributing to the AL Central’s epic shakeup.  The Tigers held a 9.5-game lead in the division before going 3-13 over their last 16 games to barely eke out a wild card slot.  The Guards, meanwhile, went 19-4 over their final 23 games to overtake Detroit and claim Cleveland’s third division title in the last four years.

After all of that, the two clubs find themselves facing off in the postseason for the second straight year.  The Guardians needed the full five games to oust Detroit in the 2024 AL Division Series, as last season the Tigers were the team surging into the playoffs after a late-season hot streak.  All of the momentum is on the Guardians’ side at this point, and even though the Tigers will have Tarik Skubal going in Game 1, Cleveland’s pitching has been on such a roll that the Guards have the overall pitching advantage.  The Guardians held an 8-5 record against the Tigers in regular-season play this year.

One of baseball’s greatest rivalries will be renewed again in October when the Yankees host the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.  The Yankees lost the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Blue Jays to fall just short of the AL East crown, despite an eight-game winning streak to finish the regular season.  New York’s rotation and homer-heavy offense seem to be clicking at the right time, yet the Sox had seemingly had the Yankees’ number this year, with a 9-4 record in head-to-head play.

After falling short to the Dodgers in last year’s World Series, the Yankees are eager to return the Fall Classic and finally win the first championship of the Aaron Judge era.  Boston hasn’t quite been the same since Roman Anthony was lost to an oblique injury in early September and the rookie star’s status remains unclear for postseason action.  However, the Red Sox have a well-rounded roster and an ace of their own in Garrett Crochet, plus the organization is hungry for postseason success in their first playoff trip since 2021.

The Cubs have also just ended a mini-drought in reaching October for the first time since the shortened 2020 season, as Chicago stepped up to win 92 games after posting 83-79 records in both 2023 and 2024.  They’ll now host the Padres in the first postseason meeting between the two clubs since 1984, when San Diego fought back from a 2-0 series deficit to win a best-of-five NLCS and deny Chicago a trip to the World Series.  Forty-one years later, it’s the Padres who might feel slightly more cursed at the moment, since the club has yet to advance beyond the NLCS in their three previous playoff trips in the last six seasons.

There’s plenty of pressure on the Friars to finally reach the pinnacle of this era of success, though Chicago is hoping for more than just a playoff appearance after its win-now trade for Kyle Tucker last winter.  After starting 38-22, the Cubs have been more okay than elite (54-48) over the better part of the last four months.  The series’ Wrigleyville locale could be impactful, as the Padres were only 38-43 on the road this season.

The Dodgers host the Reds in a matchup of two teams with very different recent postseason histories.  Los Angeles has won 12 of the last 13 NL West titles, and is looking to become baseball’s first repeat World Series champ since the 1998-2000 Yankees pulled off the three-peat.  Cincinnati, meanwhile, is in the playoffs for just the fifth time in the last 30 years, and the Reds haven’t won a playoff series since all the way back in 1995 — when they beat the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Winning “only” 93 games counts as a relative disappointment by the Dodgers’ standards, and the club will need to navigate an extra playoff round.  This puts more pressure on the beleaguered L.A. bullpen, and Will Smith’s participation is a question mark due to a hairline fracture in his right hand.  The rotation is on a roll, however, and naturally there’s a lot of built-in playoff experience for the reigning champs.  The young Reds gained some seasoning in beating out the Mets for a wild card berth, and of course manager Terry Francona is no stranger to October.  Cincinnati’s rotation and bullpen will need to continue their excellent form to counter Shohei Ohtani and company, and the wild card series would be a great time for the inconsistent Reds lineup to get on track.

Which four teams do you think will reach the Division Series?  Vote now in our polls:

Cade Horton To Miss At Least One Playoff Series Due To Rib Fracture

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The Cubs will be without one of their top starters for at least the first round of the playoffs, as Cade Horton has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 25) due to a non-displaced right rib fracture.  Left-hander Jordan Wicks was called up to take Horton’s roster spot for the final two games of Chicago’s regular season.

Horton made an early exit from his last start on Tuesday due to back soreness, and a follow-up MRI revealed an unspecified issue in his ribcage, as manager Craig Counsell told reporters earlier this week.  Horton threw in the outfield yesterday and was slated to throw a bullpen session today, yet those positive signs have now been abruptly overshadowed by the news of the IL placement.

In the best-case scenario, Horton is now out of action until at least Game 5 of the NLDS, should the Cubs make it that deep into the second playoff round.  Given that narrow window for activation, it doesn’t seem likely that the Cubs would include him on an NLDS roster, so a more realistic scenario would see Horton return as part of the NLCS roster if he can get healthy.

Of course, Chicago’s chances at such a deep postseason run will be a lot more difficult without the rookie who has emerged as a key rotation piece.  Horton figures to get plenty of NL Rookie of the Year votes in the wake of a debut season that has seen the right-hander post a 2.67 ERA over his first 118 innings in the bigs.  A 4.26 SIERA reflects Horton’s underwhelming 20.4% strikeout rate and the good fortune he has enjoyed in the both of both a 78.3% strand rate and a .258 BABIP, but Horton’s 6.9% walk rate is very solid.

There’s also the fact that Horton (the seventh overall pick of the 2022 draft) was getting better as he gained more experience.  He posted a 4.45 ERA across his first 56 2/3 innings, but then delivered just a 1.03 ERA over his next 12 starts and 61 1/3 frames.  This was seemingly a good omen for Horton and the Cubs as the playoffs loomed, as the rookie had locked up a spot in Chicago’s postseason rotation.

The Cubs should have enough starting pitching options to get by, even if their depth chart has now been shortened.  Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, and either Colin Rea or Jameson Taillon will be the starters for the best-of-three Wild Card Series, and that quartet should line up as the rotation for the remainder of the postseason.  Javier Assad is also in line to be at least a multi-inning reliever in October, and Counsell has indicated that he’ll use his entire pitching staff to navigate the playoffs, perhaps outside of traditional starter/reliever roles.

With two games left in the regular season, the Cubs are two games ahead of the Padres for the top NL wild card slot.  Unless the Cubs go 0-2 and the Padres go 2-0 the rest of the way, their NLWCS will be played in Chicago, with Game 1 set for Tuesday.

Cubs Activate Kyle Tucker, Option Carlos Santana

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11:49am: The Cubs have officially activated Tucker from the injured list. He’s hitting cleanup and serving as the designated hitter today. In a corresponding move, veteran first baseman Carlos Santana has consented to be optioned. He’ll be on the team’s taxi squad for the playoffs next week, per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Santana is a free agent at season’s end.

10:16am: After spending more than three weeks on the injured list due to a calf strain, Kyle Tucker is back for the final regular season series of the year. The Cubs outfielder himself tells ESPN’s Jesse Rogers that he’s in the lineup today — his first game since Sept. 2. The team hasn’t formally announced the move or a corresponding transaction yet.

The Cubs have already clinched a postseason berth, but these final three games will give Tucker a tune-up for their return to October baseball. The impending free agent has had a terrific season overall but will end up playing in, at most, 136 of the team’s 162 games due primarily to this calf strain. He’s hitting .270/.381/.472 (139 wRC+) with 22 home runs, 25 doubles, four triples, 25 steals and a matching 14.7% walk rate and 14.7% strikeout rate.

Tucker’s offensive numbers would likely be even more impressive had he not suffered a hairline fracture in his hand back in June. He gutted it out and played through the injury, which only came to light nearly three months later, after it had healed. Tucker hit well in June but saw his numbers drop precipitously in July. There’s no definitive way to know how much the small fracture impacted him, but he surely wasn’t playing at 100% throughout the entirety of the summer.

While Tucker was on the shelf, the Cubs went with a regular outfield of Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki, the latter of whom had most frequently served as the team’s designated hitter. That alignment opened the door for top catching prospect Moisés Ballesteros to step into the designated hitter spot on a regular basis, and he’s stepped up as one of the team’s most productive hitters this month. The 21-year-old slugger has taken 42 plate appearances since Tucker went down and turned in a stout .314/.429/.571 batting line. Ballesteros has been so productive, in fact, that he may have hit his way onto Chicago’s postseason roster.

“Moisés is playing at a really high level,” manager Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. “Where he’s hitting in the lineup should tell you a lot. He’s contributing offensively significantly. That’s real. That matters. Absolutely, we’re taking note of it.”

Ballesteros has batted fourth or fifth in each of his past ten games and hasn’t hit lower than sixth since being recalled from the minors prior to the team’s game on Sept. 12. The Cubs have shielded him from left-handed pitching, giving him only three plate appearances versus fellow southpaws. Presumably, if he were indeed to secure a spot on the playoff roster, he’d be utilized in a platoon capacity. With a full complement of Happ, Crow-Armstrong, Tucker and Suzuki ticketed for outfield/designated hitter work and Carson Kelly standing as the everyday catcher, Ballesteros probably wouldn’t be in the starting lineup much, but he could provide a potent left-handed bat off the bench.

Cubs Hoping To Reinstate Kyle Tucker On Friday; Daniel Palencia Reinstated Today

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The Cubs are hoping to have outfielder Kyle Tucker back in the lineup on Friday. “I think we’re trending towards that,” manager Craig Counsell said today, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Tucker is on the 10-day injured list and would need to be officially reinstated, which would require a corresponding active roster move.

Tucker is one of the better players in the league, when healthy. That qualifier has become more significant in recent years. He hardly missed any time from 2020 through 2023. Last year, a fractured shin limited him to just 78 games.

Here in 2025, he has played far more, though it appears some minor injuries have been impacting his production. He was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his right hand in June, though that issue didn’t become publicly known until August. He had a huge .284/.395/.524 slash line through June 1st when he jammed his finger sliding into a base. His production continued to be strong in the initial wake of that injury, as he hit .311/.404/.578 in June. But it seemed to catch up to him in July, as he hit .218/.380/.295 that month and .244/.346/.389 in August.

After appearing in just two September games, a left calf strain put him out of action. He wasn’t immediately placed on the IL, as the club seemingly held out hope of him quickly bouncing back. That didn’t come to pass, so he hit the shelf September 9th, retroactive to September 6th. It was hoped that he could make a fairly quick return but that also hasn’t come to pass, as the issue has now lingered for about three weeks in total.

The Cubs have already clinched a playoff spot but won’t be able to secure a first-round bye since the Brewers have the Central sewn up. That means the Cubs will be playing in the Wild Card round, which begins on Tuesday. Ideally, Tucker can indeed be activated on Friday, which would give him three contests to get reacquainted with major league game speed before the playoffs begin.

Given his talents, Tucker’s return will be very important for the Cubs as they look to engineer a deep playoff run. It’s also incredibly important for him personally, since he’s an impending free agent. From 2020 through 2023, he slashed .277/.350/.516 for a 136 wRC+ with 77 stolen bases and strong outfield grades. Last year, even though he missed time with the shin fracture, he had an even better .289/.408/.585 line and 179 wRC+.

He seemed to be trending towards a massive contract this winter, with some even suggesting he could top $500MM on a deal of a decade or longer. This year’s nagging injuries have cut into his momentum. His season-long line of .270/.381/.472 still translates to a strong 139 wRC+ but, as mentioned earlier, he was better before getting banged up. Quickly getting back on track and cranking out a few timely hits under the bright lights of the postseason would surely help ease any sudden doubts that teams may have about making a long commitment to him.

Elsewhere on the Cubs’ roster, the pitching staff is getting a boost. Right-hander Daniel Palencia has been reinstated from the IL today, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, with left-hander Jordan Wicks optioned out in a corresponding move.

Palencia hit the IL a couple of weeks back due to a shoulder strain. Prior to that, he was having a breakout season and took over the closer’s role in the process. He currently has 51 innings pitched on the year with a flat earned run average of 3.00. He has struck out 28.1% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 7.6% clip, recording 22 saves in the process.

Getting him back just before the playoffs is a nice bump for the playoffs but the pitching staff could also lose a notable member. Righty Cade Horton, who departed his most recent start due to back tightness, is set to undergo an MRI. Counsell relayed that update on 670 The Score, per Bruce Levine.

Horton has had an excellent debut this year with a 2.67 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 42.3% ground ball rate. If healthy, he would be in the mix for playoff starts alongside Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd. A notable injury would obviously take that off the table and lead to Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad and Colin Rea jumping up the depth chart.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

Cubs Release Nate Pearson

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The Cubs have released right-handed reliever Nate Pearson, according to the transactions log at MLB.com. The club had designated him for assignment on Saturday. He has made 11 appearances at the big-league level in 2025, most recently on August 8, before being optioned to Triple-A Iowa on August 12, where he has pitched since. He will now enter free agency with an eye toward a minor-league deal for 2026.

Pearson, 29, has not had much success in the majors this year, pitching to a 9.20 ERA in his 14 2/3 innings with the Cubs. In that small sample, he struck out just seven hitters while issuing 10 free passes and surrendering 22 hits. In his career, Pearson owns a 5.17 ERA over 156 2/3 innings with a more serviceable 23.1% strikeout rate and a 10.7% walk rate. The former first-round draft pick debuted in 2020 for the Blue Jays and made a total of 93 appearances for them from 2020-24, followed by 30 appearances with the Cubs.

The righty has fared much better in the minors this year. In 38 appearances with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in Iowa, Pearson has pitched to a 2.22 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings. He still walked 24 batters, although the strikeouts may be appealing to clubs looking for relief depth in the offseason. Pearson has just over four years of service time and two years of arbitration control remaining. He might garner interest as a reclamation project, especially if his new club can harness the swing-and-miss potential while cutting back on the free passes.

Cubs Designate Nate Pearson For Assignment

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The Cubs designated Nate Pearson for assignment, according to the right-hander’s official MLB.com profile page.  The move clears a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Eli Morgan, who was activated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Iowa.

Pearson first joined the Cubs in a trade from the Blue Jays at the 2024 deadline, and he seemed to benefit from the change of scenery.  After posting a 5.63 ERA in 40 innings for Toronto prior to the deal, Pearson stabilized things and posted a 2.73 ERA across 26 1/3 innings for the Cubs.  Even though the secondary metrics had a less-favorable view of Pearson’s performance, it looked like he had earned himself a spot in Chicago’s bullpen picture for 2025.

However, Pearson got off to a rocky start and found himself optioned back to Triple-A by the middle of April.  He has been recalled and optioned down a couple of more times since, with the end result of an ugly 9.20 ERA and more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven) over 14 2/3 innings in the Show.  Pearson’s numbers in Iowa have been considerably better, yet even his 2.22 ERA and 30.6% strikeout rate over 44 2/3 Triple-A frames have come with the red flag of a 12.9% walk rate.

Walks have been a persistent issue throughout Pearson’s career, and his seemingly improved control in 2024 may have proven to be a mirage based on his 2025 numbers.  He has also had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard, as Pearson has allowed 28 home runs over his 156 2/3 career innings in the majors.  Formerly one of baseball’s top pitching prospects during his time in the Jays’ farm system, Pearson battled injuries while in the minors, and a move to relief pitching still hasn’t allowed him to find a niche on a Major League roster.

Pearson has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, so between that team control and his past prospect pedigree, there is a chance he might get claimed as a reclamation project.  Since the 29-year-old has more than three years of MLB service time, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming he clears waivers.  It seems probable that the Cubs might just release Pearson if he clears waivers — since he is a clear non-tender candidate anyway, an early release would give Pearson an early jump on the offseason free agent market.

Morgan posted a 12.27 ERA over 7 1/3 innings before his season was all but erased by an inflamed ulnar nerve in his throwing arm.  The righty’s last MLB appearance was on April 14, and a setback during a minor league rehab assignment in June pushed his clock back even further.

Finally returning to the mound in August, Morgan has looked quite sharp in posting a 1.69 ERA over 10 2/3 innings with the Cubs’ high-A and Triple-A affiliates.  With his 30-day rehab window over, he is now back on the 40-man roster and continuing his rehab work in Iowa, and it is unclear if he might get another look in the majors before 2025 is over.  Given his long layoff, it seems unlikely that Morgan would factor into Chicago’s playoff roster plans unless other pitchers get hurt.

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