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Cubs Designate Brennen Davis, Adbert Alzolay For Assignment

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The Cubs made a series of roster moves ahead of today’s deadline for protecting players from the Rule 5 draft. Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X, the club has selected outfielder Owen Caissie and infielder Ben Cowles. To open roster spots for those two, outfielder Brennen Davis and right-hander Adbert Alzolay have been designated for assignment. It was reported earlier today that Alzolay was likely to be DFA’d. Kiley McDaniel reported on Caissie and Cowles (X links) prior to the full slate of moves being revealed.

Davis, 25, was once one of the top prospects in baseball. A second-round pick of the Cubs in 2018, he tore through the minors and Baseball America ranked him the #16 prospect in the league going into 2022. He had slashed .260/.375/.494 across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A in 2021 for a 140 wRC+ and seemed to be on the cusp of an exciting debut.

Unfortunately, his stock has fallen since then and he still hasn’t cracked the majors. He required back surgery in the middle of 2022, which was followed by core surgery in 2023 and then a fractured ankle in 2024. Through those ailments, he has only played 179 games over the past three years, slashing a paltry .200/.319/.345 while on the field.

The Cubs added him to their 40-man roster two years ago, to keep him out of the 2022 Rule 5 draft, but the ongoing injury woes have nudged him off the roster. They will now have a week to figure out what’s next, whether that’s a trade or putting him on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so a trade would have to come together in the next five days. He does still have one option year remaining, so perhaps some club would be interested in taking a flier on him to see if he can stay healthy and get back on track.

Caissie, 22, is now in the position Davis was in a few years ago. A second-round pick from 2020, he is now ranked as one of the top 100 prospects in the league. He has slashed .278/.383/.470 over the past four years for a 129 wRC+. Given his prospect status and the fact that he has already played a full season at the Triple-A level, he is one of the most obvious roster additions of today.

His path to the big league club isn’t clear right now, as the Cubs have Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cody Bellinger, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki and Mike Tauchman all in the mix for playing time in the outfield and the designated hitter slot. Perhaps an offseason move will change that picture or an injury will open some playing time, though time will tell on that.

Cowles, 25 in February, was a Yankee prospect until coming over to the Cubs a few months ago in the deadline deal that sent Mark Leiter Jr. to the Bronx. He produced a .077/.294/.077 line after that trade but the Cubs will be banking on what he did beforehand. He slashed .294/.376/.472 in 88 Double-A games before switching clubs, also stealing 14 bases while playing the three infield spots to the left of first base. He’ll give the Cubs some depth around the dirt but has just three games of Triple-A experience, so might be ticketed for more time on the farm.

Cubs Expected To Designate Adbert Alzolay For Assignment

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The Cubs are likely to designate former closer Adbert Alzolay for assignment, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). That’ll open a spot on the 40-man roster as Chicago keeps prospects out of the Rule 5 draft. Alzolay underwent Tommy John surgery in August and is going to miss most or all of next season.

A DFA would’ve been tough to fathom just a few months ago. After an inconsistent run as a starter, the righty moved to the bullpen for good in 2023. He eventually pitched his way into the ninth inning, picking up 22 saves and six holds while only blowing three leads. Alzolay turned in 64 innings of 2.67 ERA ball with a 26.5% strikeout rate. A late-season forearm strain was the only red flag in an otherwise excellent year.

Unfortunately, the forearm issue proved a precursor to a disastrous ’24 season. Alzolay started the season horribly, allowing 13 runs (nine earned) over 17 1/3 innings. He blew five saves while locking down just four games and quickly lost the closing job. Alzolay’s walks jumped while his strikeout rate dropped by nearly 10 percentage points. The Cubs put him on the injured list with another forearm strain diagnosis in the middle of May.

It seems that’ll mark the end of his Chicago tenure, which began when he signed out of Venezuela at age 18. Alzolay tried to avoid surgery and went on a minor league rehab stint in July. He had a setback in Triple-A and went under the knife a month later. A typical 14-month recovery timeline would cost him the entire ’25 season. That wouldn’t be a roster issue for the Cubs during the season, as they could place him on the 60-day injured list between the opening of Spring Training and the end of the World Series. Without an IL during the winter, Alzolay would’ve counted against their offseason roster for each of the next two years even though he may not pitch until 2026.

That’s evidently not something they’re willing to do for what could amount to one more year of Alzolay. He has between four and five years of MLB service and would collect service time if he spent all of next season on the injured list. Alzolay is on track for free agency during the 2026-27 offseason.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects the 29-year-old for a modest $2.3MM salary if he’s tendered an arbitration contract. He’d be in line for a matching salary in ’26 if he misses all of next season. A combined sum in the $5MM range would be a bargain if Alzolay recaptures his best form in 2026. There’s no guarantee that’ll be the case, of course, and it seems the Cubs don’t want to carry him on the roster long enough to take that chance.

There are a few ways this situation could play out. Perhaps the Cubs can find a trade partner who is willing to send them a marginal prospect to buy low on a potential high-leverage arm. If they don’t line up a trade, Chicago could put Alzolay on waivers within the next few days. They wouldn’t get anything in return if he’s claimed, but it’d give other clubs an opportunity to retain him on that projected arbitration salary. As a player with at least three years of service time, he’d become a free agent if he went unclaimed.

The Cubs could also simply cut Alzolay loose by declining to tender him a contract at Friday’s non-tender deadline. That’d send him directly to free agency without putting him on waivers. It’s the only time of year in which teams can drop players from the 40-man roster without waiving them. Teams frequently try to re-sign players to minor league deals after a non-tender, but Alzolay and his representatives would be able to look for a major league opportunity elsewhere. In any case, it looks as if he’ll be headed to a new team after spending more than a decade in the Cubs organization.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Nick Pivetta Unlikely To Accept Qualifying Offer

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Red Sox right-hander Nick Pivetta was one of the more surprising recipients of a $21.05MM qualifying offer earlier this month, but he’s likely to reject the offer in search of a multi-year deal, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who suggests that “at least” a three-year deal should be waiting for the righty, who’s heading into his age-32 season. Passan lists the Orioles, Cubs and Braves as potential landing spots.

Anything more than a three-year deal for Pivetta would register as a surprise and something of a precedent-breaker. In the past ten offseasons, only four pitchers have commanded a contract of four or more years when signing ahead of their age-32 season or later (link via MLBTR’s Contract Tracker): Jacob deGrom (five years, $185MM starting at age 35), Hyun Jin Ryu (four years, $80MM starting at 33), Zack Greinke (six years, $206.5MM starting at 32) and James Shields (four years, $75MM starting at 33).

Solid as Pivetta is, he doesn’t have the track record of any of those four pitchers. When healthy, deGrom has been the best pitcher on the planet. Ryu signed his four-year deal after a Cy Young runner-up. Greinke was opting out of a six-year, $147MM deal with the Dodgers and was one of the game’s best pitchers at the time he signed his six-year deal with Arizona. Shields was a clear No. 1 or 2 starter, having pitched 933 innings over the prior four seasons — 233 per year — with a 3.17 ERA and strong strikeout and walk rates.

Pivetta doesn’t have that sort of resume, though his high-end strikeout and walk rates have made him a candidate for a quietly strong deal. When preparing for our annual top 50 free agent rankings, we felt a three-year deal in the $14-17MM annual range was possible for Pivetta — at least before he received a qualifying offer. The right-hander has never turned in a sub-4.00 ERA campaign, but that’s largely due to a regular susceptibility to home runs, something that another club might feel can be curbed or improved with a tweak in mechanics, approach or pitch selection. Pivetta is durable, misses bats at a premium level and has improved his command three years running. He ranked 10th among 126 big league pitchers (min. 100 innings) in terms of his K-BB% this season (22.9%).

It still seems feasible that a three-year deal could be there, but suggesting anything more feels like a stretch, unless multiple teams feel Pivetta is untapped as a potential No. 1-2 starter and is willing to ignore historical norms for pitchers in this age bracket. That could well be the case, but Passan opines that Pivetta “is looking at one of the biggest deals of the winter for a starter,” which would surprise plenty of onlookers. That’s a subjective sentence, but no one expects Pivetta to top Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Blake Snell and Jack Flaherty, while others like Sean Manaea and Yusei Kikuchi should have greater per-year earning power on a three- or four-year contract.

Time will tell where the bidding lands, but the more immediate takeaway is that Pivetta apparently doesn’t feel inclined to lock in a one-year deal that would more than double his career earnings. That speaks to the strength of the market he and his agents at CAA are finding for his services thus far.

Rockies Claim Jimmy Herget

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The Rockies announced that they have claimed right-hander Jimmy Herget off waivers from the Cubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week.

The 31-year-old Herget split the 2024 season between the Braves and Cubs, spending the bulk of the year in the Atlanta organization. He notched 12 1/3 major league frames there, posting a 4.38 ERA with a 15-to-3 K/BB ratio. Herget was then claimed by the Cubs in September but didn’t wind up pitching in the majors for them.

This past season marked the sixth in which Herget has logged at least sparing major league action. He made his big league debut with the 2019 Reds and has appeared in every MLB season since, cycling through stints with the Rangers and Angels as well. He’s pitched 155 frames in the majors and owns a solid 3.54 ERA with an average 22.2% strikeout rate rate and quality 7.4% walk rate.

Herget doesn’t throw particularly hard, averaging just over 92 mph on his heater in 2024, and he’s struggled to keep the ball in the yard these past two seasons, with nine homers in 41 1/3 frames (1.96 HR/9). That doesn’t necessarily bode well for his move to Coors Field, but the Rockies are perilously thin in relievers with big league experience, so it seems they’ll consider giving Herget a look in hopes that he can curb that proclivity for homers.

Because Herget is out of minor league options, he’ll need to either break camp with the Rockies next spring or be passed through waivers before being sent down. Even if he were to go unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Herget has three remaining seasons of club control and is eligible for arbitration this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $900K salary for him.

Rays Among Teams To Have Reached Out To Soto

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The Rays are among the teams that have reached out to Juan Soto’s camp since the opening of free agency last week, writes Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman lists a much less surprising additional six teams that have shown interest: the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Giants, Blue Jays and Red Sox.

The mere mention of the Rays as a possible Soto suitor is going to be met with plenty of skepticism. It’d be a shock if they made a legitimate push for the market’s top free agent. The Rays have tried to land an elite free agent at least once before, as they reportedly made an offer in the $150MM range to Freddie Freeman before he signed with the Dodgers. That wasn’t too far off the price Freeman ultimately landed, but any offers to Soto would be in a different stratosphere. He should handily top $500MM and could secure a contract between $600MM and $700MM.

While it’s fair to assume the Rays themselves aren’t optimistic about their chances, this is illustrative that they have some money to at least dabble in the middle of free agency. The Rays opened this past season with a payroll around $98MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They’ve got a little less than $40MM in guaranteed commitments for next year (assuming Wander Franco remains on the restricted list and is not paid). Their arbitration class is projected around $25MM, though they could knock that to the $15MM range with a few non-tenders. Trades of Brandon Lowe or Yandy Díaz would subtract another $10.5MM or $10MM, respectively.

None of that is to say they should be perceived as a realistic threat to the big-market teams on Soto. They’ll probably be more active in free agency than many fans might expect given their general spending habits, though. Another mid-tier strike akin to the $40MM Zach Eflin deal from two offseasons ago could be on the table. Any free agent pursuits are complicated by their uncertain stadium situation after Tropicana Field was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton.

The other teams known to have some interest in Soto are all expected. The Yankees and Mets are widely perceived as the favorites. The Dodgers are at least tied to virtually every free agent of note. The news that Mookie Betts is likely moving back to the middle infield is going to fuel speculation about L.A. making a run at Soto. Giants baseball operations president Buster Posey has spoken about wanting to land a star. The Blue Jays were in the running for Shohei Ohtani last winter. The Red Sox have indicated they could be more active in free agency than they’ve been over the past few winters, although a splash in the rotation market seems much likelier than them landing Soto.

The New York Post reported last week that 11 teams had been in contact with Soto’s reps at the Boras Corporation on the first day of the offseason. That leaves at least four unknown clubs, though Heyman casts some doubt on the Nationals and Cubs as possibilities. Heyman suggests that Washington is unlikely to spend at the level necessary to bring Soto back. He writes that Chicago’s offseason plans are more geared towards pitching at the moment.

Soto’s free agency should carry for multiple weeks. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote this afternoon that the four-time All-Star plans to have an in-person meeting with the ownership group of each team making a serious pursuit.

Cubs Expected To Pursue Help Near Top Of Rotation, Back Of Bullpen

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The Cubs are expected to be aggressive in their search for upgrades near the top of the rotation and in their late-inning relief corps, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Chicago was already expected to be in the market for catching upgrades this winter.

Improvements on the pitching staff have long stood as a fairly logical pursuit for the Chicago front office. The lineup was largely set even before Cody Bellinger passed on his opt-out opportunity. The Cubs have Michael Busch at first base, Nico Hoerner at second, Dansby Swanson at short and Isaac Paredes at the hot corner. The outfield/DH mix contains Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and now Bellinger. Each of Happ, Suzuki and Swanson have no-trade provisions.

Hoerner was speculated by many — MLBTR included — to be a possible trade candidate as a result of this inflexibility on the trade front, but his recent forearm surgery makes a deal quite unlikely. The Cubs aren’t likely to add a long-term replacement.  Mooney suggests that top prospect Matt Shaw or an in-house alternative like James Triantos could bridge that gap. Hoyer told Mooney and others at the ongoing GM Meetings that there’s no timeline for Hoerner’s return just yet, but the team expects a “full recovery.” On paper, there’s a path to moving Bellinger and the remaining two years on his contract, but to this point there’s been no indication the Cubs will consider that this winter.

As such, an upgrade behind the plate seems like the clearest path to bolstering the lineup, while an upgrade on the pitching side of things is the most obvious path to improving the club overall. As it stands, the Cubs could be as much as $50MM shy of their 2024 payroll levels — a number that could push closer to $60MM if they opt to further subtract some arbitration-eligible players via non-tender or trade. Trey Wingenter, Julian Merryweather, Adbert Alzolay, Patrick Wisdom and Nick Madrigal are among the options who fit that billing after several arb-eligible Cubs were already cut loose yesterday.

That leaves the Cubs with significant financial firepower at their disposal, assuming ownership authorizes a payroll at least in line with last year’s rough $235MM mark (per RosterResource). President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer (or perhaps owner Tom Ricketts) has typically preferred not to invest money in lengthy deals for relievers. The last multi-year deal for any reliever from the Cubs was in 2019 when they signed Craig Kimbrel to a three-year, $43MM pact. If that trend holds up, it’ll only point all the more significantly toward a potential splash in the deep end of the free agent pool for starting pitchers.

As it stands, the Cubs have Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and likely Javier Assad locked into starting spots. Candidates for the fifth spot in the rotation include Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Hayden Wesneski, Caleb Kilian and top prospect Cade Horton. All have minor league options remaining, and any of the bunch could end up a bullpen option. Brown and particularly Wesneski both got looks in relief last year. Assad has had success as a reliever in 2023.

The top end of the free-agent pool includes Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried and Jack Flaherty. All four were predicted for nine-figure guarantees on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent rankings. Of the four, both Burnes and Fried received and will reject a qualifying offer. Ricketts confirmed in October that the Cubs narrowly crossed the luxury tax threshold in 2024, meaning they’d need to surrender their second- and fifth-highest selections in the 2025 draft as well as $1MM of space from their 2025 international bonus pool in order to sign Burnes, Fried, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino or any of the free agents who received a qualifying offer. (It’d have been “only” their second-highest pick and $500K of pool space had they successfully dipped under the line.) The qualifying offer historically hasn’t been a dealbreaker for the Hoyer-led Cubs. They signed Swanson after he rejected the Braves’ QO in the 2022-23 offseason.

And, to be clear, the mere fact that the Cubs haven’t given out a multi-year deal to a reliever under Hoyer doesn’t mean that they won’t consider doing so this winter. Prior to last offseason, the Cubs had typically spent $5MM or less on free-agent relief pitchers. They nearly doubled that sum when signing Hector Neris. The deal didn’t work out, of course, but Hoyer has already begun to deviate a bit from the bargain-bin approach to building out a bullpen. That’s a far cry from declaring they’re in in top relievers like Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez and others, but a step up in their aggression toward pursuing relief help shouldn’t be ruled out.

If the Cubs are indeed intent on sticking to the one-year bucket in free agency, there’s no shortage of older but still high-quality leverage options from which to choose. Each of Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen, Blake Treinen and old friend David Robertson is a free agent this winter. They’ll all pitch next year at 37 or older, making them likely one-year deal candidates. Any of the bunch could (and likely will) command an eight-figure salary, but the Cubs already came close to that level in signing Neris and could be further emboldened to pursue a solidified ninth-inning option after last year’s bullpen again proved shaky, tying for eighth in the majors with 26 blown saves.

Cubs Claim Rob Zastryzny, Designate Jimmy Herget

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The Cubs announced that left-hander Rob Zastryzny has been claimed off waivers from the Brewers. Righty Jimmy Herget was designated for assignment in a corresponding move, and Chicago also outrighted four other players off their 40-man roster: catcher Christian Bethancourt, and right-handers Yency Almonte, Enoli Paredes, and Colten Brewer.  All four players elected free agency after clearing waivers.

Zastryzny, 32, spent the first three seasons of his career with the Cubs. He was a second-round pick by Chicago back in 2013 but has since bounced around the league, spending big league time with the Mets, Angels, Pirates and Brewers since departing the Cubs following the 2018 season. He’s also had minor league stints in the Dodgers and Marlins organizations. In 2024, Zastryzny yielded just one run in 7 2/3 MLB frames as a Brewer, nicely complementing a 3.03 ERA and 32.5% strikeout rate in 29 1/3 Triple-A frames. He has another five seasons of club control remaining, but as a depth claim, there’s no guarantee he’ll last the offseason on the 40-man roster.

Herget, 31, spent the bulk of the season with the Braves after a two-year stint in the Angels organization. The Cubs claimed him off waivers in mid-September but didn’t use him in the big leagues. He logged 12 1/3 innings with Atlanta and notched a 4.38 ERA (six runs) with a 15-to-3 K/BB ratio. In 155 big league innings, Herget carries a 3.54 ERA with a slightly below-average 22.2% strikeout rate and a sharp 7.4% walk rate.

Herget is out of minor league options, so any team that places a claim would need to carry Herget on the big league roster to begin next season. If he clears waivers, he’ll become a free agent and likely seek a minor league contract in free agency. He’s arbitration-eligible for the first time but comes with just a $900K projected salary, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Of the outrighted players, each of Almonte, Bethancourt and Brewer were also arb-eligible. Swartz projected the trio for respective salaries of $2.2MM, $2.5MM and $800K, respectively. Almonte came to the Cubs alongside Michael Busch in last offseason’s trade with the Dodgers, but a shoulder strain limited him to 15 2/3 innings. Bethancourt is a rocket-armed, journeyman catcher who provided little with the bat at a position where the Cubs are seeking offensive upgrades. Brewer has been with four organizations over the past three seasons but posted a 5.66 ERA in 20 2/3 innings with the Cubs this season.

Paredes, 29, posted a 1.66 ERA in 21 1/3 innings between the Brewers and Cubs (just one scoreless inning for the latter team). However, he did so with a middling 18.4% strikeout rate and worrying 11.5% walk rate — all while also showing a heater that averaged 93.9 mph, which is nearly two miles per hour slower than the 95.7 mph he displayed in his 2020 debut. Paredes thrived in part due to a tiny .220 average on balls in play and a bloated 84% strand rate. Like Herget, he’s out of minor league options.

Assuming Herget clears waivers, all five players jettisoned from Chicago’s 40-man roster today appear ticketed for minor league deals on the open market.

Cody Bellinger Exercises Player Option With Cubs For 2025 Season

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Cody Bellinger has exercised his $27.5MM player option for the 2025 season, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan (X link).  Bellinger’s three-year, $80MM deal with the Cubs last winter included opt-outs after both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but Bellinger will pass on the first opt-out (and $2.5MM buyout) in order to remain in Chicago for at least one more year.

Bellinger also earned $27.5MM in the first year of his contract, so he’ll have a $25MM decision waiting for him with next year’s opt-out.  With $5MM attached to that opt-out, Bellinger has now guaranteed himself $60MM of that initial $80MM payday, and could potentially be in line for another long-term contract if he delivers a big 2025 season.

Of course, Bellinger thought that his big 2023 season might’ve set him up for a lucrative long-term contract last winter, yet he ended up rejoining the Cubs for that three-year pact.  Similar option-heavy shorter-term deals were also in the cards for other notable Scott Boras clients like Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery, leading the quartet to be known as the “Boras Four” as their trips through free agency dragged deep into Spring Training.

Bellinger signed near the end of February so he still had the benefit of most of spring camp, though injuries were probably the bigger reason why the former NL MVP’s performance dropped off from 2023.  A fractured right rib and a fractured left middle finger resulted in a couple of relatively brief trips to the injured list, though Bellinger hit a modest .266/.325/.426 with 18 home runs over 569 plate appearances.

While his 109 wRC+ was still above the league average, it also wasn’t the kind of standout platform year that would’ve made Bellinger a lock to top the remaining salary on his Cubs contract.  As a result, Bellinger was still reportedly unclear about his opt-out decision as late as September 20, and he has now chosen perhaps the slightly more cautious move of just sticking in Wrigleyville for another season.

There’s plenty of logic in Bellinger’s decision, beyond the obvious appeal of a $27.5MM payday.  After being a free agent in each of the last two offseasons, a quiet winter with his 2025 destination already established surely had some appeal for Bellinger.  He has also been vocal about how much he has enjoyed playing for the Cubs, so he’ll now stay in a familiar and welcome environment of the Friendly Confines.

From the Cubs’ perspective, they now have a pretty big salary on their books for 2025.  Of course, a one-year outlay for a player with Bellinger’s upside isn’t exactly a bad outcome, and obviously it was an outcome the front office has planned for given the three-year contract.  With Pete Crow-Armstrong now establishing himself in center field, Bellinger will probably be the Cubs’ primary right fielder next season, with Seiya Suzuki perhaps getting the bulk of DH duty.  Bellinger’s ability to also play center field and first base adds to his versatility, and gives manager Craig Counsell some flexibility in figuring out his daily lineups.

As per RosterResource, the Cubs’ projected payroll for next year up to roughly $183.5MM, factoring in Bellinger staying and Drew Smyly leaving after Chicago declined their end of the veteran pitcher’s mutual option.  This leaves the Cubs with plenty of spending space before they get up to the $241MM luxury tax threshold, provided the threshold is any sort of real barrier for ownership.  The Cubs didn’t pay the tax in any of the 2021-23 seasons but may have just barely crossed the threshold this season, depending on the league’s final calculations.

Cubs Decline Option On Drew Smyly

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The Cubs have declined their end of a $10MM mutual option on left-hander Drew Smyly, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll be paid a $2.5MM buyout and return to the free agent market.

Smyly, 35, pitched to a 3.84 ERA in 58 2/3 innings over 50 relief appearances with the Cubs this past season, but that solid earned run average was accompanied by more worrying rate stats. The southpaw’s strikeout rate dipped to 21.8% while his walk rate spiked to a 9.7% mark that stands as the second-worst of his career. He also yielded an average of 1.53 homers per nine innings pitched and surrendered his highest hard-hit rate (38.2%) and average exit velocity (89.2 mph) since 2020. His 11.3% swinging-strike rate was his lowest since 2019.

When the Cubs signed Smyly, they did so with an eye toward a potential rotation spot. He indeed started 23 games for them in 2023, the first season of his two-year $19MM pact, but he didn’t make a single appearance out of the rotation in 2024. Chicago’s rotation mix includes Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, Ben Brown, Hayden Wesneski and Jordan Wicks, with promising prospect Cade Horton on the horizon. Allocating $10MM to a swingman coming off diminished strikeout/walk rates and with ongoing home run issues wasn’t something on which the team was keen, clearly.

Be that as it may, Smyly should find another big league deal in free agency. He has extensive experience both as a starter and reliever, so a club with some uncertainty in the fourth or fifth spot of the rotation could look to Smyly as an affordable early-season rotation piece who could move to the ’pen if younger arms force the issue. Other teams might simply view Smyly as an intriguing option in a market light on quality left-handed relievers.

Cubs To Hire Quintin Berry As Third Base Coach

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The Cubs plan to hire Quintin Berry as third base coach, report Will Sammon, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of the Athletic. The 39-year-old has spent the past six seasons on the Brewers’ staff, the last four of which have come as first base coach.

Craig Counsell managed in Milwaukee for the first five years of Berry’s coaching tenure. After one season working under Pat Murphy, Berry rejoins Counsell on the North Side. The Cubs moved on from previous third base coach Willie Harris a few weeks ago. Milwaukee has not announced a replacement.

Berry had a 13-year professional playing career and got to the big leagues in parts of five seasons. He was known for his speed and ability to steal bases. That included a perfect 21-21 showing for the Tigers in 2012. That was the only season in which he logged significant MLB playing time, but he bounced around as a quintessential September player. The expanded rosters — teams could carry up to 40 players in September at that time — afforded the flexibility to use him as a designated pinch runner.

Berry won the 2013 World Series with the Red Sox while working in that capacity. He played the same role with the Cubs in 2015. He’ll make a return to Wrigley Field a decade later.

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