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Cubs Designate Giovanni Soto For Assignment

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The Cubs have designated left-hander Giovanni Soto for assignment, the team announced.  The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Kyle Schwarber, who was activated from the 60-day DL to join the Arizona Fall League in an improbable quest to make Chicago’s World Series roster (if the Cubs can advance).

The Cubs acquired Soto from the Indians for cash considerations in April.  Ironically, Soto’s spot on Chicago’s 40-man roster was originally created when Schwarber was placed on the 60-day DL in the wake of his seemingly season-ending knee surgery.  Soto, 25, spent all of 2016 pitching at the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, posting a 5.14 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 1.77 K/BB rate over 49 relief innings.

The southpaw was originally a 21st-round pick for the Tigers in the 2009 draft, though he spent just over a year in Detroit’s organization before being dealt to Cleveland as part of the trade that sent Jhonny Peralta to the Tigers.  Soto has pitched mostly out of the bullpen in recent years, and he owns a 3.29 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 2.3 K/BB rate over 514 career innings in the minors.  His Major League experience consists 3 1/3 scoreless innings over six games with the Tribe in 2015.

Cubs Not Ruling Out Kyle Schwarber For World Series Return

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Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber will begin play in the Arizona Fall League tonight, and The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma reports that there’s still a chance Schwarber could be activated in time to serve as a designated hitter should Chicago reach the World Series.

On April 7, in just his second game of the year, Schwarber tore both the ACL and LCL in his left knee after colliding with center fielder Dexter Fowler while chasing a fly ball.  The injury was expected to sideline Schwarber until 2017, though he has been making good progress in his recovery, even taking part in an on-field workout at Dodger Stadium before Game 3 of the NLCS.  Needless to say, it would be a shocking turn of events for Schwarber to return at all just 6.5 months removed from major knee surgery, let alone to make his return in the high-intensity environment of the Fall Classic.

Provided that the Cubs make the World Series in the first place, the team won’t have much time to evaluate Schwarber in the AFL given that Game One of the Series begins on Tuesday night in Cleveland.  The plan would be to use Schwarber as a DH for the games in Cleveland and as a pinch-hitter for the games at Wrigley Field.  ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers reports (Twitter link) that Schwarber won’t be playing the field and “running [is] still an issue,” so it could be that Schwarber will be strictly a bat-only player.  The Cubs have enough multi-position players that they could potentially get away with using a roster spot on a very limited Schwarber, so Joe Maddon will face a fascinating decision if things line up his team’s way come Tuesday.

The young slugger burst onto the scene in 2015 by hitting 16 homers over his first 273 plate appearances in the bigs, and he has already proven himself to be a big October performer.  Schwarber hit .333/.419/.889 with five homers over 31 PA during Chicago’s 2015 playoff run, making him the leading home run hitter in Cubs’ postseason history.

Central Notes: Cardinals, Fowler, Twins

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The Cardinals have a number of roster decisions to consider even before beginning to look at free agency this winter, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Jordan Walden’s option will be bought out, while Seth Maness, who is currently on the 60-day DL, is a possible non-tender candidate in Goold’s eyes (though that decision won’t come until later this winter). Plenty of deliberation will need to be dedicated to the Rule 5 Draft, Goold writes, as the Cardinals have a large number of players to consider protecting. Last year, St. Louis opted not to protect right-hander Luis Perdomo, believing him to be too inexperienced to stick in the Majors for a full season, but the Padres hung onto him and received 15 starts with a 4.13 ERA in the final few months of the year. Goold lists 15 players that are in need of protection this winter, headlined by infielders Eliezer Alvarez, Edmundo Sosa, Allen Cordoba and Juan Herrera as well as outfielder Magneuris Sierra. Goold’s piece has quite a bit of additional info on each prospect listed, so Cardinals fans (and those who track the Rule 5 Draft in general) will want to check out his column.

More from the game’s Central divisions…

  • Dexter Fowler tells Bob Nightengale of USA Today that his options in free agency last winter were “few and far between” before he decided to return to the Cubs. “My agent, Casey (Close), was talking to everybody, and I felt like this was the best fit to come back here,” Fowler explained. One reason for Fowler’s struggles on the open market last year, he says, was a perception of his defense. “They said I was a bad outfielder, and I kind of took offense to that,” he explained. “So I just moved back a few steps. I didn’t really do anything too different.” Fowler says that he approached Joe Maddon and other Cubs decision-makers in Spring Training about playing deeper in the outfield and was informed that they’d been hoping to talk to him about that very same strategy. Fowler rated +1 in both UZR and DRS this season, which may not seem overly impressive, but that DRS rating is a stark improvement from his 2015 mark of -12. Fowler implied that he’ll again aim for a long-term deal this winter, though obviously he’ll have more pressing needs on his mind over the coming two to three weeks.
  • Poor fastball command has become a systemic failure for the Twins, writes Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and it was one of the chief reasons for the struggles of top prospect Jose Berrios in the Majors this season. Berardino examines the struggles that the Twins have had up and down their ranks with fastball location and spoke to pitching coach Neil Allen about the problem. While Allen isn’t even sure that he’s going to be employed by the team next season — the fate of the Twins’ coaching staff will be largely determined by new chief baseball officer Derek Falvey — but he’s taken steps to impress his new boss by compiling a comprehensive pitching plan that he hopes to have implemented throughout the entire organization. Allen said that a more stringent organizational emphasis was placed on fastball command while he was serving as the Rays’ Triple-A pitching coach before joining the Twins, and he hopes to deploy a similar philosophy in Minnesota in 2017 if retained.

Miguel Montero Thought Cubs Would Release Him

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Catcher Miguel Montero’s tie-breaking, eighth-inning grand slam made him the hero of the Cubs’ 8-4 win over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Saturday. The 33-year-old didn’t expect to be in that position, however, as he told FanRag Sports’ Jack Magruder after the game that he thought the Cubs might release him during the season. The Cubs never indicated that was a possibility, though, according to Magruder.

Montero’s currently slated to return to Chicago next season with a hefty salary – $14MM – to conclude the five-year, $60MM extension he signed with the Diamondbacks in 2012. The Cubs reportedly considered shopping Montero last offseason, which was before the two-time All-Star’s playing time markedly declined during arguably a career-worst year. Montero appeared in 86 games, his fewest since 2010, and batted a meager .216/.327/.357 in 284 plate appearances. Both rookie Willson Contreras and veteran David Ross took playing time from Montero during the regular season, and that has continued in the playoffs. Montero’s grand slam was his first hit of this year’s postseason, in which he has collected just five at-bats. He came to the plate Saturday as a pinch-hitter and is out of the Cubs’ lineup Sunday.

Going forward, Ross’ forthcoming retirement seems to bode well for Montero to remain with the Cubs in 2017. Ross’ departure will leave Montero as the Cubs’ only veteran backstop. The team also has Kyle Schwarber on track to come back from a knee injury that cost him almost all of this season. He conceivably could fall directly behind Contreras on the Cubs’ catcher depth chart next year, though there are questions about Schwarber’s defense. For his part, the 23-year-old slugger is “adamant” about factoring in heavily behind the plate, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reported in September.

On dividing his time between catcher and the outfield, Schwarber told Gonzales, “I want to get back to that point where it’s 50-50 on each side now and not 60-40.”

Regardless of Schwarber’s goal, the fact that full tears to his ACL and LCL cost him a year to develop further as a catcher might help Montero’s chances of finishing his contract as a member the Cubs. Notably, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein praised Montero’s pitch-framing and game-calling skills after last season, attributing some of the pitching staff’s success to his defensive work. Montero has indeed been an excellent framer throughout his career, which Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner indicate has again been the case in 2016.

We’ll know what 2017 holds for Montero soon enough. In the meantime, he’ll spend the next couple weeks trying to help the Cubs win their first World Series since 1908.

“I probably had a bad year, but I might be the MVP of the World Series,” he told Magruder. “I’m being kind of sarcastic, but in reality you never know. Baseball is kind of crazy. Anything can happen, and then nobody is going to remember what I did in the regular season.”

Heyman’s Latest: Baez, Soler, Lackey, Tigers, D’Backs, Bruce, Yankees

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Here’s a postseason-flavored set of notes from Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports…

  • The Cubs’ decision to keep Javier Baez has proven to be a wise one, and Heyman writes that the team kept Baez over Starlin Castro last offseason because the front office simply had more belief in Baez’s potential.  Not only did Castro carry a much higher price tag than the pre-arb Baez, but the Cubs infielder is already looking like the more productive player — Baez posted 2.7 fWAR over 450 plate appearances, while Castro managed just 1.1 fWAR over 610 PA for the Yankees.  Baez has shown great power and is cutting back on his strikeouts, though while he is still something of a work in progress at the plate, his defense has already drawn raves.  One NL scout tells Heyman that he thinks Baez could win Gold Gloves at multiple positions in the future.
  • Jorge Soler could again be trade bait as the Cubs will be juggling a crowded outfield situation.  Kyle Schwarber will return to play left field, plus Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist would seem to be penciled in for center and right, respectively.  That mix also doesn’t include highly-touted rookie Albert Almora, or if the Cubs were to re-sign Dexter Fowler for center field.  Soler drew a lot of trade attention last winter and is signed through 2020, so though he hasn’t truly broken out as a big leaguer yet, he would surely be a big trade chip if the Cubs indeed explored moving him.
  • The Tigers and Diamondbacks both “tried hard” to sign John Lackey last winter before the right-hander inked his two-year, $32MM deal with the Cubs.  Lackey reportedly chose Chicago over two larger offers, though Heyman doesn’t know if the Tigers and D’Backs were the clubs behind those bigger deals.  Arizona was known to have “at least checked in” on Lackey last winter, and while Detroit’s involvement in the Lackey market is new information, it isn’t a surprise given how the Tigers targeted starting pitching last offseason.  Either team landing Lackey sets up several fascinating what-if scenarios, given that the D’Backs and Tigers made alternate pitching acquisitions that didn’t pan out in 2016.  If the Diamondbacks signed Lackey, perhaps they then wouldn’t have made the franchise-altering decisions to sign Zack Greinke or trade for Shelby Miller.  If the Tigers had gotten Lackey, perhaps they wouldn’t have spent $110MM on Jordan Zimmermann, or $16MM on Mike Pelfrey.
  • There have already been reports that the Mets intend to exercise their $13MM club option on Jay Bruce for 2017, and a rival executive tells Heyman that retaining Bruce is a move New York has to make.  Keeping Bruce would create some defensive issues within the Mets outfield, though the exec noted that “if they don’t want him, they could always trade him.”  Bruce slumped badly after joining the Mets but he posted strong numbers in the season’s first four months, so he’d certainly draw interest on the trade market.
  • Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield were the two headline prospects sent from Cleveland to New York in the Andrew Miller trade, and Heyman reports that some Indians staff believe Sheffield could be the bigger loss: “Sheffield is a lefty starter, which you can’t find, Frazier is a corner power bat, which you can.”  It’ll be several years before we can access how that trade worked out for either the Yankees or the Tribe, though needless to say, nobody in Cleveland has any regrets right now, given Miller’s dominance.

Quick Hits: Jaso, Yankees, Cubs, Athletics

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The Pirates want John Jaso to work out at third base and in the outfield this winter, MLB.com’s Adam Berry reports. Jaso was a catcher prior to the 2016 season, but moved to first base this year and had immediate success defensively, so it’s wouldn’t be that surprising if he were capable of handling third as well. The idea that Jaso could be used in a multi-positional role in 2017, though, suggests that the Pirates could have Josh Bell (a far worse defender than Jaso, but a younger player and a slightly better hitter, at least by 2016 statistics) take the bulk of the playing time at first base. The team already has David Freese available to back up Bell at first and Jung Ho Kang at third, so finding time for Jaso as a third baseman might be difficult. There might be a bit more space for Jaso in the outfield, with backups Matt Joyce and Sean Rodriguez eligible for free agency. Still, with another year remaining on his contract, Jaso could potentially be a trade candidate this winter or in Spring Training. Here’s more from around the league.

  • With Mark Teixeira retiring, the Yankees will have a new regular first baseman next season for the first time since Teixeira’s arrival in 2009, Chad Jennings of Lohud.com writes. GM Brian Cashman says the Yankees’ default approach next season will be to go with younger options at first. “[W]ithout having advance notice on what becomes available and what gets presented to you in various concepts – I would that that would be the way that we like to approach this going into Spring Training of next year,” he says. “Let the kids get a shot at it.” Greg Bird, Tyler Austin and Rob Refsnyder could all get opportunities at the position. Bird is currently playing in the Arizona Fall League after having missed the 2016 season due to a shoulder injury. If he proves he’s healthy, one would think he would have the inside track on playing time after batting .261/.343/.529 in his first 178 big-league plate appearances in 2016.
  • Top Cubs executive Theo Epstein sees parallels between the organization he currently runs and the one he led while with the Red Sox, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald writes. Epstein’s Cubs made their first playoff run last season but were ousted by the Mets in the NLCS. His first playoff team in Boston fell in the ALCS to the other New York franchise in 2003. The next year, of course, the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. “I’ve had some flashbacks here and there. First few days of the offseason last year, after getting knocked out by the Mets, definitely felt like the same kind of galvanizing time that we had in Boston after Aaron Boone walked us off,” Epstein says. “Hopefully the same results: ’03 to ’04, ’15 to ’16.”
  • News that the Nevada Assembly has approved expenditures for a stadium designed to lure the Raiders from Oakland has no immediate impact on the Athletics, writes John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. A’s owner Lew Wolff says he hasn’t heard anything about the possibility that the Raiders’ option to tell the A’s to find a new place to play should the Raiders find a home somewhere besides the Oakland Coliseum. “They were going to have to have a firm financial plan in place here if they were going to give us notice, and it doesn’t seem like that’s happening,” says Wolff. The A’s have been exploring other stadium options in Oakland, but for now, they don’t have any concrete plans to move.

Cubs Notes: Baez, NLCS Roster, Zastryzny

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Heading into the 2011 draft, the Cubs were set on Javier Baez with the ninth overall pick, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. Rosenthal reports of a pre-draft conversation between then-Cubs scouting director Tim Wilken (now a special assistant with the Diamondbacks) and Padres exec Jason McLeod (now with the Cubs). The Padres wanted to take Francisco Lindor with the tenth overall pick and were curious about whether the Cubs would be selecting him. Wilken told McLeod that Baez was a “no-doubter” if he was still on the board when the Cubs picked. McLeod wasn’t as convinced: “I remember calling Jed after the game and saying, ‘This guy may be Manny Ramirez, or he might never get out of Double A!’ We weren’t convicted on the hit tool at the time and probably could have done a better job getting to know him personally.” In fairness to McLeod, Baez has struggled to control the strike zone in his young career, although he’s made up for that with defense and power. Either pick would have turned out just fine, of course, as both are now emerging young players who have already made noise in this year’s playoffs. The Indians ultimately took Lindor with the eighth pick; the Cubs took Baez at No. 9, as promised, and the Padres selected Cory Spangenberg at No. 10. Here’s more out of Chicago.

  • Cubs GM Jed Hoyer says the process by which the team sets its NLCS roster will involve a “lot of yelling,” as Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic writes. That roster will be announced this morning. “The first one to get to this point was a lot of back and forth. This will obviously be a quicker meeting with less time to make the decision,” says Hoyer. It’s just one decision, whether we want to do 12 or 11 [pitchers]. A lot of that will depend on the opponent.” Sharma outlines the decisions in play this time, suggesting that infielder Tommy La Stella, outfielder Matt Szczur, lefty Rob Zastryzny and others could be on the bubble.
  • Since they’re facing the Dodgers (whose collection of left-handed hitters includes Adrian Gonzalez, Corey Seager, Chase Utley, Andre Ethier, Joc Pederson, Josh Reddick and Andrew Toles), the Cubs seem likely to add Zastryzny, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune writes. Gonzales notes that the rookie left-hander has already faced the Dodgers once in his brief MLB career, throwing 3 2/3 scoreless innings against them in a strong outing April 27. “I looked at their lineup. I watched (Game 5 of the NL Division Series),” says Zastryzny. “I have thrown against them before.”

Bo Porter Among Additional Possible Rockies Managerial Candidates

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Former Astros skipper and current Braves special assistant Bo Porter is receiving at least some consideration for the Rockies’ open managerial position, according to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The report identifies a number of other possibilities on a growing list of names who appear to be on Colorado’s radar.

Another former Astros’ manager, current Indians bench coach Brad Mills, has also come up. His Cleveland staff mate, first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., is another name to watch. Obviously, neither of those possible candidates can be pursued in earnest at present, with the Indians just opening play in the ALCS.

Two other bench coaches who could draw interest from the Rockies are Dave Martinez of the Cubs, who also is busy with his current position, and Ron Wotus of the Giants. We heard earlier today that Wotus had received contact from a team with a managerial opening. Given that the Diamondbacks — the other team with an opening — haven’t yet resolved their front office situation, it seems reasonable to suspect that it was the Rockies who came calling.

Today’s report significantly expands the group of names tied in some way to the Rockies’ top dugout post. Last we checked in, the scuttlebutt was that former Brewers skipper Ron Roenicke (most recently of the Angels), former Padres manager Bud Black (ditto), Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, Braves first base coach Eddie Perez, and Rockies Triple-A skipper Glenallen Hill had some form of connection to the gig — though in some cases, the reporting involved interest on their behalf rather than the team’s.

All told, that slate largely represents a “who’s who” of skippers-to-be around the game. Those that haven’t yet taken managerial jobs at the major league level have at least interviewed for jobs with other organizations.

Still, the Rockies aren’t just looking to plug in an experienced hand. According to Harding, Colorado hopes to find someone “who will apply statistics and other research into managing and coaching, and who are adept at various methods for creating team chemistry.” In that regard, certainly, the organization seems to be participating in a near-universal trend leaguewide.

David Ross 99% Certain He Will Retire

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Cubs catcher David Ross is still 99.9% certain he will retire at the end of the season, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers tweets. Ross indicated last November that he would likely retire after the 2016 season, although that was before a strong campaign in which he batted .229/.338/.446 in 205 plate appearances while playing his usual strong defense.

The 39-year-old Ross explained his thought process in some detail last week, as Rogers described at the time. “I just don’t want to be that weak link,” said Ross. “I don’t want to be the guy that holds everyone up. I want no regrets on my end.”

Ross did go on to say that he might consider continuing to play if the Cubs “blew [his] socks off,” although he seemed to be at least half-joking. He listed not being able to play with outfielder and fellow catcher Kyle Schwarber, who missed almost the entire season due to a knee injury, as one of his regrets about leaving the game behind.

For now, Ross appears to be concentrating on winning a World Series with the Cubs. “People ask, ’Where does my retirement stuff rank?’ Winning a World Series is way better than that. It’s an amazing thing to dog pile out there while no one else can do that,” he said last week.

Ross has played parts of 15 seasons in the Majors, suiting up with the Dodgers, Pirates, Padres, Reds, Braves and Red Sox before signing a two-year, $5MM deal with the Cubs prior to the 2015 season. He’s collected just 2,644 plate appearances in his career, since he’s generally played as a backup, and batted .229/.316/.423. He won a World Series as a member of the Red Sox in 2013.

NL Notes: Mets, Cubs, Fowler, Marlins

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Mets left-hander Steven Matz underwent successful surgery to repair a “massive” bone spur in his elbow on Tuesday, Adam Rubin of ESPN.com was among those to report. Matz, who hasn’t pitched since Aug. 14, also received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his left shoulder. The 25-year-old should be at full health by spring training, according to the club. Despite dealing with injuries, Matz logged a 3.40 ERA, 8.77 K/9, 2.11 BB/9 and 51.1 percent ground-ball rate in 132 1/3 innings as a rookie.

More regarding New York and two other National League clubs:

  • Cubs president Theo Epstein revisited the team’s late-February re-signing of center fielder Dexter Fowler, telling Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, “It wasn’t like we swooped in at the last minute and stole him from Baltimore.” It appeared that way at first, as Fowler reportedly had a three-year, $33MM agreement in place with the Orioles. But Fowler told Sullivan, “I actually didn’t know where the report came from. That thing is still a mystery to me. But the right people knew what the deal was.” The Cubs actually kept in contact with Fowler all along, and Epstein even offered to call other teams to vouch for Fowler during his unemployed stint. “I wanted the best for Dexter,” said Epstein. “I kept getting updates, and then when we got into spring training, I told (agent Casey Close) ’No promises, but look, if it ends up he’s looking at any one-year scenario, stay in touch because we might be able to make a trade or do some things that would put him back in play for us.” After Fowler’s deal with the Orioles didn’t materialize, Epstein cleared $4.8MM in salary by trading fellow outfielder Chris Coghlan to the A’s (the Cubs re-acquired Coghlan in June). Epstein then brought back Fowler on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2017. At $8MM ($13MM if either side declines the option), Fowler was a bargain for the Cubs during the regular season – he hit .276/.393/.447 with 13 homers and 13 steals and accounted for 4.8 fWAR in 551 plate appearances – and will now attempt to help the NL Central champions to their first World Series title since 1908.
  • Former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez is a candidate to return to the team as its third base coach, tweets Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. Gonzalez was previously the Marlins’ third base coach from 1999-2000, and he took over as their manager in 2007. The Marlins went 276-279 before Gonzalez’s ouster in June 2010 and finished over .500 in two of his three full seasons. Gonzalez then worked as the Braves’ manager from 2011 until his firing this past May. Atlanta compiled a 434-413 record under Gonzalez and made two playoff trips.
  • In further Mets injury news, first-round draft pick Anthony Kay underwent Tommy John surgery Tuesday, per MetsBlog. The left-hander from the University of Connecticut went 31st overall in this year’s draft and joined the Mets for a below-slot deal amid elbow concerns. The 21-year-old southpaw will now miss all of next season and could lose some of the 2018 campaign, too.
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