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Roster Moves: Contreras, Lopez, Detmers, Guerra, Quintana

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Catching on some of the roster moves that took place before today’s slate of games…

  • The Cubs placed Willson Contreras on the 10-day injured list due to right hip inflammation, officially ending the veteran catcher’s season.  In corresponding moves, Alfonso Rivas was moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL, and catcher Tyler Payne made his MLB debut today after his contract selected from Triple-A.  One of the few veterans remaining in the wake of the Cubs’ deadline fire sale, Contreras might be either a trade candidate or an extension candidate this winter, depending on the club’s next direction.  Contreras finishes the year hitting .237/.340/.438 with 21 home runs over 483 PA.
  • The Marlins activated Pablo Lopez from the 60-day injured list, as Lopez tossed 1 2/3 innings in an abbreviated start during Miami’s 5-4 win over the Phillies today.  It marked Lopez’s first game since July 11, as a right rotator cuff strain interrupted a very impressive season for the 25-year-old.  Lopez posted a 3.03 ERA and above-average strikeout and walk rates over his first 101 innings, setting himself up for 2022 as yet another quality young arm in the Marlins rotation. To make room for Lopez’s return to the roster, Miami placed left-hander Sean Guenther on the 10-day IL and moved first baseman Jesus Aguilar to the 60-day IL.
  • The Angels called up left-hander Reid Detmers to start today’s contest with the Mariners, and also activated righty Junior Guerra from the 10-day IL.  Outfielder Taylor Ward heads to the 10-day IL with a right adductor strain while southpaw Jhonathan Diaz was optioned to Triple-A.
  • Jose Quintana cleared waivers and outrighted to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate.  San Francisco designated Quintana for assignment earlier this week, after the veteran left-hander posted a 4.66 ERA over 9 2/3 innings with the Giants.  Quintana was claimed off waivers from the Angels at the end of August, as the Giants looked to add some lefty depth down the stretch.

Cubs Select Joe Biagini, Place Tommy Nance On Injured List

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The Cubs have placed right-hander Tommy Nance on the injury list, which seems to hint at a COVID-related absence given the lack of a reason given for Nance’s placement.  Taking Nance’s spot is righty Joe Biagini, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Iowa.

Patrick Wisdom, Austin Romine, David Bote, and Nick Martini have also been placed on Chicago’s IL (without any official cause) within the last three days, as the Cubs have apparently been hit with a coronavirus outbreak just as their season comes to an end.  No official details have been given about any of the players, so it isn’t known who might have a positive case, or if some players are being held out for contact tracing or other precautionary reasons.

Barring a quick turn-around, it appears as though the placement will end Nance’s rookie season.  The 30-year-old posted a 7.22 ERA over 28 2/3 relief innings for the Cubs, as Nance began his big league run with 12 1/3 scoreless frames before batters caught up to him in a big way.  Nance wasn’t drafted, as he began his pro career by signing with the Cubs after an indy ball stint in 2015, and then delivered a 3.29 ERA over 123 innings in Chicago’s farm system, missing the 2017 season due to injury.

If Biagini appears in one of Chicago’s final two games, it will mark the sixth consecutive season that the righty has seen at least some action at the MLB level.  Perhaps best known for his strong performance in 2016 as a Rule 5 pickup for the Blue Jays, Biagini has since shown flashes of that early, but his numbers cratered after being dealt to the Astros in 2019.  Biagini had a 10.42 ERA over 19 innings with Houston 2019-20, while also struggling with a shoulder problem last year.  The Cubs inked Biagini to a minor league deal last winter, and he has a 5.50 ERA in 91 2/3 frames with Iowa.

NL Notes: Padres, Cubs, Mets

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Fernando Tatis Jr. made no two ways about it when discussing his future as a shortstop. “(A.J. Preller) signed a shortstop, and he’s gonna have a shortstop,” he said, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic (via Twitter). “That’s the plan so far, and I’m not planning on moving for a very long time from there.” Tatis moved to the outfield this season after being slowed by a repeated shoulder injury. The Padres are flush with infielders under team control for next season, including Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim, both of whom are capable of manning short. Regardless, Tatis Jr. sounds dedicated to reclaiming his natural position.

Elsewhere in the National League…

  • Willson Contreras gave an honest assessment of what he thinks the Cubs need heading into next season, while acknowledging that he thought he was going to be traded in this piece from The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma. Despite being the “last man standing” in many respects, Contreras continue to say all the right things about wanting to stay and be a leader on the next generation of Cubs’ contender. They have some money to spend this offseason, but for the first time in awhile, many teams seem to, and there are only so many “foundational” pieces available in that market.
  • The Mets biggest decision this winter will be finding the right man to lead their front office. After a number of missteps, the Mets will look to some high profile names to come in and right the ship. Of the most noteworthy, Oakland’s Billy Beane may be the most realistic target, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). In the Mets favor is the fact that the Athletics are often looking to save money, and at this point in his storied career, Beane comes at a significant cost. Still, Beane has been the driving force behind a successful couple of decades of A’s baseball, and it’s hard to imagine him walking.

Cubs Select Johneshwy Fargas, Tyler Ladendorf

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The Cubs are selecting outfielder Johneshwy Fargas and infielder Tyler Ladendorf to the major league roster, the team informed reporters (including Jordan Bastian of MLB.com). Outfielder Nick Martini and infielder David Bote were placed on the COVID-19 injured list in corresponding moves. Additionally, Chicago placed infielder Nico Hoerner on the 10-day IL due to right oblique tightness and recalled righty Cory Abbott to start this evening’s game.

Fargas opened this season with the Mets after signing a minor league deal last winter. He popped four extra-base hits in his first 22 MLB plate appearances but landed on the injured list after hurting his shoulder running into an outfield wall. By the time he returned, the Mets’ previously-injured outfield had returned to health and he was squeezed back off the roster. Chicago claimed him off waivers but designated him for assignment themselves just a few weeks later.

Between the two clubs, Fargas hit .277/.292/.426 over 49 trips to the dish. He’s hitting .246/.295/.395 in a bit more playing time at Triple-A. Now that he’s back on the 40-man roster, Fargas technically remains controllable for the foreseeable future. It’s possible the Cubs remove him from the roster again after this final weekend of play, though. If that were to happen, the 26-year-old would qualify for minor league free agency this offseason.

Ladendorf is back in the big leagues for the first time in five years. He picked up 68 plate appearances between 2015-16 with the A’s but hasn’t played at the highest level since. The right-handed hitter has bounced between a few Triple-A clubs and independent ball, landing with the Cubs on a minor league deal in May. Through 210 plate appearances with their top farm team in Iowa, the 33-year-old Ladendorf hit .241/.297/.424 with eight homers.

Cubs Select Erick Castillo

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The Cubs are selecting catcher Erick Castillo to the big league roster, the team informed reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). Fellow backstop Austin Romine is headed to the COVID-19 injured list in a corresponding move.

Castillo is an organizational veteran, having joined the Cubs as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela during the 2010-11 international signing period. He has spent the past decade-plus climbing the minor league ranks, and he’ll be rewarded for his perseverance with his first major league call at age-28.

The right-handed hitting Castillo has never appeared on an organizational prospects list at either FanGraphs or Baseball America. That’s largely thanks to a general lack of production at the plate. Over nine minor league seasons, Castillo owns a .212/.281/.264 line with six home runs. He’s a .197/.288/.236 hitter in brief action over parts of three Triple-A campaigns. Clearly, Castillo won’t bring much power potential to the plate, but he’s generally done well to put the ball in play throughout his professional tenure. He’ll be on hand to back up Willson Contreras over the season’s final four games.

Cubs Select Trent Giambrone

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The Cubs are set to select the contract of infielder Trent Giambrone, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). It’ll be the first call to the Majors for the former 25th-round pick.

Giambrone, 28 in December, has had a rough season in Triple-A this year but will bring plenty of versatility to the Cubs’ bench for the final few games of the year. In 271 plate appearances, he’s posted just a .174/.274/.255 batting line with three homers, eight doubles, a triple and five steals. He’s shown more power than that in past seasons, swatting 12 homers in 2017, 17 home runs in 2018 and 23 home runs in 2019.

Defensively, Giambrone has primarily been a second baseman both in 2021 and throughout his minor league career. He’s seen brief spells at third base, at shortstop and in the outfield corners this season, but he was deployed all over the field on a consistent basis back in 2019. That season saw Giambrone log between 103 and 334 innings at six different positions: all four infield spots and both outfield corners.

To make room for Giambrone on the active and 40-man rosters, Chicago placed third baseman Patrick Wisdom on the COVID-19 injured list.

Jed Hoyer Discusses Upcoming Cubs Offseason

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Jed Hoyer, president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, spoke with reporters (including Bruce Levine of of 670 The Score and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic) on Friday about the upcoming offseason. Hoyer said that the organization plans on being “really active in free agency,” though also hedged that by saying they plan to “spend money intelligently.”

One could be forgiven for being a bit skeptical of Hoyer, given how his tenure as president has gone so far. After taking over for the departing Theo Epstein in November of 2020, it took him just over a month to trade away the team’s ace, Yu Darvish, a move that seemed entirely motivated by ownership-mandated cost savings and was essentially unprecedented. If that wasn’t a total wave of the white flag on the season, then the trade deadline was, as the Cubs shipped out almost all of their curse-breaking core by trading away Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant, as well as Craig Kimbrel and a few others.

After almost a year of stripping the roster down, it’s hard to believe that the front office will suddenly turn around and spend at the top of the market in an attempt to make a quick return to competitiveness. However, there’s not going to be much stopping them from spending this winter, financially speaking. Due to all the aforementioned trades, they now have just over $40MM in guaranteed money on the books for 2022, most of which is going to Jason Heyward and Kyle Hendricks, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. Willson Contreras and Ian Happ will be owed arbitration raises and add modest sums to that, but that will probably only push the total to the $60MM range. The Cubs haven’t had a payroll below $100MM since 2014, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, when prorating 2020’s payroll over a full season. So, there could be lots of money for Hoyer to throw around, if ownership allows him. But based on the past year, that’s a big if.

Given all the holes on the roster created by the teardown, it seems more likely that the club will make a few modest signings and continue to give most of their playing time to cheaper and controllable players. With the departure of the previous core, they didn’t really have highly-touted prospects to call up and fill the void. Instead, the playing time has gone to late-bloomer types like 30-year-old Rafael Ortega and 29-year-olds Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel. Although those guys have fared well in their auditions since the deadline, they’re generally not the kinds of players that front offices consider building blocks.

In addition to the roster, Hoyer will also be dealing with other matters, such as signing a general manager. In Sharma’s piece from The Athletic, and a separate piece from Levine, they say the plan is to make a hire before the general managers’ meetings. A date is not yet set for this year’s meetings, though they usually take place annually in November. Levine’s sources say the Cubs have “had contact with upward of six individuals” about the position, though no names are mentioned.

As for the manager’s seat, Sharma suggests the plan there is more straightforward. David Ross is about to finish the second season of a three-year deal, though he could be a candidate for an extension. When asked about the possibility of an extension, Hoyer said, “I think that’s a question for next week… But it’s a fair question next week. And like I said, I love working with him. He’s already an excellent manager, and I think he has a chance to be really special in his job.”

All in all, it will surely be a very different offseason than the Cubs have had in some time, with one competitive window now firmly closed and all efforts focused on opening the next one.

Cubs Select Jason Adam

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The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Jason Adam and will appoint him as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader, per a club announcement. Chicago also placed catcher Robinson Chirinos on the 10-day IL due to an oblique strain and recalled outfielder Greg Deichmann from Triple-A Iowa.

It’s a remarkable return for Adam, who suffered a gruesome injury with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate earlier in the season. The 30-year-old right-hander was shagging fly-balls in the outfield during batting practice and suffered an open dislocation and fracture of his ankle, which caused significant damage to multiple ligaments and tendons in his foot and ankle.

Adam told the Des Moines Register’s Tommy Birch back in June that he had thoughts of NFL quarterback Alex Smith’s career-altering injury and the harrowing sequence of surgeries and infection that followed. At one point, Adam feared he might lose his foot. Adam told Birch that he went into shock and that doctors had difficulty sedating him for surgery due to the excess of adrenaline his body produced in the wake of the injury. Birch’s story is well worth a full read for full context on the severity of Adam’s injury as well as quotes from Adam, teammates and coaches who were there at the time (note that there are some rather graphic details of the awful injury).

Incredibly, however, doctors told Adam after the surgery that he could be back on a mound by season’s end. The Cubs designated Adam for assignment and released him shortly after the surgery, as injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers and the team needed to open a 40-man roster spot. They re-signed Adam to a minor league deal a few weeks later, however, and he’s steadily been working his way back to the mound ever since.

Adam not only returned to pitching in minor league games earlier this month but has done so with quite strong results. It’s only five innings over five appearances, but he’s held opponents to one run on five hits and a walk with seven punchouts.

It could very well be a short-term return to the Majors for Adam, who struggled through 7 2/3 frames in the big leagues earlier in the year (seven runs on nine hits and six walks). That said, Adam was quietly very effective with the Blue Jays and Cubs from 2019-20, pitching a combined 35 1/3 innings with a 3.06 ERA. He fanned more than 36 percent of the hitters he faced with the Cubs in 2020, and while walks have been an issue for him, that ability to miss bats is genuinely intriguing. Time will tell whether he sticks on the 40-man roster, but the very fact that Adam is pitching at all, just four months after such a severe injury, is something of a triumph in and of itself.

Cubs Outright Dillon Maples

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SEPTEMBER 21: Maples cleared waivers and has been sent outright to Triple-A Iowa, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to pass along. He doesn’t have the requisite service time to refuse an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization for the rest of the season. However, Maples will qualify for minor league free agency this offseason unless he’s reselected to the 40-man roster before the end of the year.

SEPTEMBER 19: The Cubs have activated Nico Hoerner and Keegan Thompson from the 10-day injured list.  To create two roster spots for the returning players, outfielder Nick Martini was optioned to Triple-A while right-hander Dillon Maples was designated for assignment.

Maples is out of minor league options, which is why Chicago had to take the DFA route to remove the 29-year-old from the active roster.  A veteran of parts of five MLB seasons, Maples had an 8.49 ERA over 23 1/3 career innings for the 2017-20 Cubs before posting a 2.59 ERA in 31 1/3 frames in 2021.

However, Maples has benefited from a .203 BABIP, as his SIERA is 4.64 and his walk rate is an ungainly 18%.  Control has been a persistent issue for Maples at both the Major League and minor league levels, and the Cubs seem to have seen enough.

“There’s some people in the organization that feel like we’ve just run out of time,” manager David Ross told NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer and other reporters.  “We wish [Maples] the best in his career and hopefully for his sake he catches on with somebody, and he’s able to have a long, successful major-league career.  It just doesn’t look right now at this time like it’s going to be with us.”

Thompson will start today’s game against the Brewers after missing a little over two weeks due to right shoulder inflammation.  The right-hander has shuttled up and down from Triple-A Iowa a few times this season, with a 3.54 ERA to show for his first 48 1/3 career innings in the big leagues.  Working mostly as a reliever, Thompson has managed that respectable ERA despite some unimpressive peripherals, including a 12.8% walk rate.

Hoerner suffered a right oblique strain at the end of July, and thanks to previous IL trips due to a left hamstring strain and a left forearm strain, Hoerner has played in only 39 games.  The former top prospect has at least hit decently well (.312/.388/.388 in 152 PA) when he has been able to play, and the Cubs will certainly be interested in evaluating Hoerner over the season’s last two weeks to help determine his role with the 2022 team and beyond.

Cubs Select Trayce Thompson

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The Cubs announced they’ve selected outfielder Trayce Thompson to the big league roster. Jason Heyward is landing on the seven-day concussion injured list in a corresponding move. To open space on the 40-man roster, Chicago transferred outfielder Michael Hermosillo from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Thompson is back in the big leagues for the first time in three years. The right-handed hitter broke in with the White Sox in 2015 and saw some MLB time in each of the following three seasons, with his biggest workload coming with the 2016 Dodgers. Thompson hit for a fair amount of power and can cover all three outfield spots, but his overall productivity was limited by swing-and-miss issues. In 589 big league plate appearances, he owns a .206/.276/.389 mark with 22 home runs but an alarming 28% strikeout rate.

He’s split the 2021 season between the Triple-A affiliates of the D-Backs and Cubs, spending most of the campaign with Chicago’s top farm team in Iowa. Thompson has popped 21 round trippers in 358 plate appearances there but continued to punch out quite a bit. He owns a .233/.344/.492 line with a 32.4% strikeout rate with Iowa this season.

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