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Cubs Recall Porter Hodge For MLB Debut

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The Cubs on Friday recalled right-hander Porter Hodge from Triple-A Iowa and placed fellow righty Colten Brewer on the 15-day injured list due to tightness in his lower back, tweets Meaghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. Hodge will give the Cubs a fresh arm in the bullpen, and if he gets into a game, it’ll be his big league debut.

Hodge, 23, was the team’s 13th-round pick back in 2019. He entered the season ranked 19th among Cubs prospects at Baseball America and 24th at both FanGraphs and MLB.com. His season thus far has been a mixed bag. Hodge fired four shutout innings in Double-A, yielding only one hit and one walk with eight punchouts before being promoted to Triple-A Iowa. Since moving up to Des Moines, he’s struggled to a 6.55 ERA (eight earned runs in 11 innings) while surrendering a dozen hits and issuing a whopping 11 walks. He’s still fanned nearly one in three opponents, but he’s also walked more than one in five of them.

Command has long been an issue for Hodge. He’s walked 12.9% of his opponents dating back to the 2022 season. Scouting reports on the big 6’4″, 230-pound righty tout both his heater and his slider as potential plus offerings, but the effectiveness of both could be undercut by shaky command of each. There’s potential for the right-hander to play a long-term role in the Chicago bullpen, but he’ll likely need to trim a few points of his walk rate to reach his ceiling as a high-leverage reliever.

Brewer, 31, was a minor league signee whom the Cubs called to the big leagues last month. He’s pitched 11 2/3 innings for manager Craig Counsell and turned in a 3.09 ERA with a 12-to-4 K/BB ratio and a strong 48.4% ground-ball rate. The team has not yet provided a timetable for Brewer’s potential return to the roster.

Giants Sign Curt Casali To Major League Deal

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The Giants announced they’ve signed catcher Curt Casali to a big league contract. San Francisco optioned Jakson Reetz to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. To create a 40-man roster spot, they moved Tom Murphy from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. Casali, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, is guaranteed a $1MM base salary, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (on X).

It’s the second stint in San Francisco for the 35-year-old backstop. Casali signed a major league free agent deal back in 2021 after being non-tendered by the Reds. He spent a year and a half in the organization, combining for a .218/.317/.357 slash line over 357 plate appearances. San Francisco packaged him alongside Matthew Boyd to the Mariners at the 2022 deadline for a pair of minor leaguers.

Casali hasn’t produced much at the MLB level since that trade. He hit .125/.300/.225 in 16 games with Seattle. Cincinnati brought him back on a $3.25MM free agent deal that winter, but his return stint with the Reds didn’t go as hoped. Casali lost a good portion of the season to a foot injury. He played sparingly as the third catcher even when healthy, hitting .175/.290/.200 over 96 plate appearances.

The Reds made the easy call to decline their end of a $4MM mutual option last winter. Casali spent Spring Training with the Marlins after inking an offseason minor league contract. He didn’t hit at all during camp and was released before Opening Day. Casali has spent the past six weeks in Triple-A with the Cubs, where he was out to a fantastic start to the season.

In 23 games, he mashed at a .362/.489/.551 clip for Chicago’s top affiliate. He connected on a pair of homers and drew 15 walks against 16 strikeouts. While he’s certainly not going to continue hitting at that level in the majors, it was a strong enough showing to get back to Oracle Park. Casali’s familiarity with the San Francisco front office and much of the clubhouse no doubt helped matters.

That said, the Giants surely didn’t envision looking for MLB catching help this early in the season. San Francisco entered the year with a surplus behind the plate. Patrick Bailey had emerged as their clear #1 option. They inked Murphy to a two-year deal over the offseason to add a power-hitting backup. That pushed Blake Sabol to Triple-A and former #2 overall draftee Joey Bart, who is out of options, off the roster entirely. San Francisco traded Bart to the Pirates during the first week of the season.

They’ve been hit with a brutal stretch of injury luck at the position since then. Bailey landed on the seven-day concussion injured list on May 4. He was reinstated over the weekend but went back on the concussion list last night as he dealt with renewed virus-like symptoms. San Francisco lost Murphy to a significant left knee sprain one day after Bailey’s first IL placement. Today’s transfer rules him out of action into early July.

Casali and Sabol will work as the MLB catching duo for the time being. Reetz heads back to Triple-A as the top depth option. Sabol still has options remaining, so the Giants could send him back to Sacramento once Bailey returns from the IL.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Cubs Designate Richard Lovelady For Assignment

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The Cubs designated left-hander Richard Lovelady for assignment Tuesday, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Tyson Miller, whose previously reported trade from Seattle to Chicago is now official.

Lovelady, 28, signed a minor league pact with the Cubs back in January and was selected to the big league roster in late April. He’s tossed 5 2/3 innings out of Craig Counsell’s bullpen and been tagged for five runs on nine hits and a pair of walks with six strikeouts. That marks the fifth big league season in which the southpaw has appeared; Lovelady made his MLB debut with the 2019 Royals and pitched in K.C. from 2019-21, and he logged 23 1/3 innings with the A’s last season. Overall, in 70 2/3 big league innings, he carries a 5.48 ERA but with a far more encouraging 22.7% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 49.8% ground-ball rate.

That blend of strikeouts, walks and grounders, coupled with a strong Triple-A track record, has made Lovelady appealing to MLB teams over the past year despite a history of success in the majors. The Cubs are his fourth organization since Opening Day 2023. Lovelady has been picked up by the Braves in a small trade, claimed off waivers by the A’s, and quickly selected to the big leagues with the Cubs.

In parts of six Triple-A seasons, Lovelady has a 2.95 ERA with a sharp strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates of 26.6%, 6.8% and 50.7%, respectively. He’s not a power arm, but he has added more than a mile per hour to both his four-seamer and sinker since last year’s showing with Oakland. He sat at 91 mph with both pitches last year but averaged 92.8 mph on the four-seam and 92.5  mph on his two-seam during his brief showing with Chicago.

Lovelady does have a minor league option remaining, so any club that picks him up via trade or waiver claim could send him to Triple-A without first passing him through waivers themselves. He’ll be traded, claimed off waivers or assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa within the next week (if he clears waivers). He’s been outrighted previously in his career, so Lovelady would have the right to reject a minor league assignment from the Cubs if he does go unclaimed.

Cubs To Acquire Tyson Miller

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The Cubs are acquiring reliever Tyson Miller from the Mariners for minor league infielder Jake Slaughter, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). Seattle had designated Miller for assignment last week.

Miller returns to the organization that selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. The Cal Baptist product reached the majors for a very brief stint during the 2020 season. The Cubs lost him on waivers to the Rangers the following year. That kicked off a nomadic stretch of his career that has seen Miller suit up for five teams without reaching even 15 innings for any of them.

The right-hander played for three teams last year. He bounced via waivers between the Brewers, Mets and Dodgers. Miller combined for 15 1/3 innings of eight-run ball and cleared waivers in September. He hit minor league free agency and inked a non-roster deal with Seattle going into 2024. The M’s called him up two weeks into the regular season.

Miller had a productive month in the Pacific Northwest. He threw 11 2/3 frames over nine appearances, allowing four earned runs. Miller punched out 12 against one walk with a solid 12.6% swinging strike percentage. It was a little surprising that Seattle nevertheless took him off the roster, although he’d been in a low-leverage role in a solid bullpen.

The Cubs have a shakier relief corps than the Mariners do. Chicago’s bullpen entered play Monday ranked 24th in the majors with a 4.58 earned run average. Their 23.4% strikeout rate is fine, but they’ve issued walks at a huge 11% clip. Chicago also has five relievers on the injured list at present. Yency Almonte landed on the shelf over the weekend, while Adbert Alzolay just went down with a forearm strain this evening.

Miller is out of options, so he’ll step right into the major league bullpen. The Cubs need to create a 40-man roster spot to finalize his acquisition and will need to make an active roster move once he reports to the team.

In return for a middle reliever who had been squeezed off the depth chart, Seattle adds an upper minors infielder who is out to a strong start. Slaughter, 27, has a .297/.392/.486 slash line over 130 plate appearances for Chicago’s top affiliate in Iowa. He has connected on five homers, stolen 10 bases in 11 tries, and drawn walks at a strong 11.5% clip. His 24.6% strikeout rate is slightly higher than average but around three percentage points lower than last year’s 27.5% mark.

Slaughter was an 18th-round pick out of LSU back in 2018. He has never drawn much prospect fanfare and has gone unselected in the Rule 5 draft twice. His numbers this season are strong enough that he has a chance to reach the majors in a reserve capacity this year, though. He would qualify for minor league free agency at the start of next offseason if Seattle doesn’t add him to the 40-man roster before then.

Cubs Place Adbert Alzolay On Injured List With Forearm Strain

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The Cubs announced today that right-hander Adbert Alzolay has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm strain. Fellow righty José Cuas was recalled from Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move.

It’s not yet clear how much time Alzolay is expected to miss, though there seems to be some level of worry. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune relays word from manager Craig Counsell on X, with the skipper saying the righty became sore during yesterday’s game in Pittsburgh and is getting imaging today. Per Counsell’s framing, since Alzolay is getting testing and has been immediately placed on the IL before the team even has the results, it indicates a level of concern.

The full results of the testing will provide more details on the severity and the timing, but there’s always some uneasiness when a pitcher’s throwing arm is involved. This also isn’t Alzolay’s first IL stint of this nature, as he missed about two weeks in September last year, also due to a right forearm strain.

He’s also experienced a drop off in results. He broke out as the Cubs’ closer last year, something MLBTR covered in August. He finished the year with a 2.67 earned run average in 64 innings. He struck out 26.5% of batters faced while giving out walks just 5.1% of the time and getting grounders on 42.2% of balls in play. He racked up 22 saves in the process.

Here in 2024, he has a 4.67 ERA through 18 appearances. His walk rate is up to 8% and his strikeout rate is way down to 17.3%. The velocity is down a bit on all five of his pitches, per Statcast. He was bumped out of the closer’s role a few weeks back, with Counsell saying that “we’ve got to get Adbert some confidence.”

Time will tell whether this is just a blip or a significant setback, but it should be a challenge for the Cubs either way. Their injured list already featured six pitchers before today, with Caleb Kilian, Jordan Wicks, Yency Almonte, Julian Merryweather, Daniel Palencia and Drew Smyly now joined by Alzolay. The club’s relief core has a combined ERA of 4.58 for the year, which places them 24th in the league. As the injuries continue piling up, it will be harder for the club to improve upon that mark.

For now, Héctor Neris has taken over the closer’s role, with six saves already. He has an even ERA of 3.00 on the year despite walking more batters than he has struck out. He has an 18.6% strikeout rate and 20% walk rate. A 52.4% ground ball rate has helped him strand 86.5% of runners and keep his ERA down, but his 5.27 FIP and 5.75 SIERA suggest he may be on shaky ground. Mark Leiter Jr. has an excellent 0.53 ERA on the year with strong peripherals. He can’t keep stranding 84.2% of baserunners but his 2.14 FIP and 3.24 SIERA are still strong. Pitchers like Colten Brewer and Richard Lovelady may also have to factor into the setup mix until other arms get healthy.

David Peralta Opts Out Of Cubs Deal

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Veteran outfielder David Peralta opted out of a minor league contract with the Cubs and elected free agency, as indicated on the MiLB.com transaction log. He’ll now be an option for any club seeking some left-handed-hitting and/or corner outfield depth.

The 36-year-old Peralta is a former Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner who’s spent the bulk of his career with the Diamondbacks, for whom he played a pivotal role over the course of nine seasons. From 2014-22, Peralta batted .283/.340/.463 in 961 games and 3728 plate appearances as a member of the D-backs. He belted 110 homers — including a career-high 30 in 2018 alone — and added another 191 doubles and 46 triples for good measure.

By measure of wRC+, Peralta was 12% better at the plate than the average hitter during his Arizona tenure. Couple that with strong overall defensive ratings in the outfield corners, and Peralta was a quietly valuable player for the Snakes for upwards of a decade. The Diamondbacks rewarded his consistency with a three-year, $22MM contract extension heading into the 2020 season, buying out a pair of free-agent seasons in the process.

Arizona wound up trading Peralta to Tampa Bay prior to the 2022 trade deadline, and he’s had subsequent struggles both with the Rays and (in 2023) with the Dodgers. Since leaving Phoenix, Peralta has batted .258/.301/.368 in 602 big league plate appearances.

Peralta inked his minor league deal with the Cubs back in February. As Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote last month, he wasn’t immediately ready for game action, as he was still wrapping up the rehab process from an October procedure to repair the flexor tendon in his left forearm back in October. Peralta got into six games late in spring, going 8-for-18 with a homer, a double and triple, but he opened the season in extended spring training as he wasn’t yet fully cleared to throw from the outfield. He wrapped up a rehab/throwing program and joined the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate on April 11.

In 20 games and 85 plate appearances with Iowa, Peralta has posted a .217/.341/.348 batting line. He’s been dinged by a .232 average on balls in play that’s more than 100 points shy of his career .326 mark in the majors, which has surely played a role in the pedestrian offensive rate stats he’s produced. Peralta’s approach and plate discipline seemingly remain quite sound; he’s walked at a 14.1% clip against just a 15.3% strikeout rate.

Peralta has notable platoon splits in his career, with a .289/.343/.474 slash against righties in his big league career against a .241/.303/.361 line versus fellow lefties. Speculatively speaking, a team with multiple injuries and/or struggles in the outfield (e.g. Giants, Royals, Cardinals) could make some sense for Peralta on another minor league deal, as he’ll likely prioritize signing somewhere with a relatively clear path to a big league opportunity.

Cubs Activate Kyle Hendricks From Injured List

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TODAY: The Cubs officially reinstated Hendricks from the injured list this morning, and announced that right-hander Jose Cuas had been optioned to Triple-A Iowa in the corresponding move. Cuas, 30 next month, has struggled to a 9.00 ERA and 5.03 FIP in six appearances with the club this year.

May 11: The Cubs plan to activate right-hander Kyle Hendricks from the 15-day injured list tomorrow, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun Times) following tonight’s game. He’ll start tomorrow’s game against the Pirates opposite left-hander Bailey Falter. The Cubs will need to make space for Hendricks on the active roster prior to the game.

Right-hander Jameson Taillon was initially expected to start tomorrow’s game, but Counsell told reporters (as noted by Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) earlier today that the right-hander was dealing with a bout of back stiffness that cropped up during a bullpen session on Tuesday. While Counsell indicated after the game that Taillon’s bullpen session today went well, he nonetheless is “not quite ready” to start another game. With left-hander Shota Imanaga lined up to start Monday’s series opener in Atlanta, that would put Taillon in line to potentially take the ball opposite the Braves on Tuesday.

That Taillon won’t require another trip to the injured list is surely a relief for Cubs fans. The right-hander missed the first three weeks of the season with lower back and quad issues but has been excellent in four starts since being activated off the IL, with a 1.13 ERA and 3.52 FIP in 24 innings of work. On the other hand, it’s somewhat surprising to see Hendricks activated off the injured list so quickly. While the right-hander has been on a rehab assignment since the start of May, the club had previously indicated that the plan was for Hendricks to make a third rehab start this weekend before determining next steps. That plan now appears to have been scuttled in favor of Hendricks returning to the club’s rotation.

Rushing the veteran back into action at the big league level is a risky decision after his start to the season. The 34-year-old righty was placed on the injured list at the end of April due to a lower back issue of his own after making five starts, the results of which were nothing short of brutal. Hendricks has yet to record an out in the sixth inning in any of his appearances this season, and has completed the fifth inning just once while striking out just 15.1% of batters faced. While his 6.6% walk rate is more or less in line with his career norms, he’s allowed a whopping eight home runs this season en route to a ghastly 12.00 ERA and 7.72 FIP in 21 innings of work. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored Hendricks’s tough start in depth shortly before the club placed him on the IL last month.

Assuming Taillon is able to slot back into the club’s rotation next week and Hendricks will remain in the mix for starts for the time being, the Cubs figure to have an overflow of starting pitching options for their rotation at the moment. Right-hander Ben Brown has already moved into a bullpen role after starting four games for the club earlier this year, and lefty Jordan Wicks is currently on the injured list while nursing a forearm strain, but that still leaves Imanaga, Justin Steele, Javier Assad, and Hayden Wesneski in the mix for starts alongside Taillon and Hendricks, to say nothing of top prospect Cade Horton lurking at the Triple-A level.

Assuming an injury within that group doesn’t solve the logjam organically, the Cubs appear likely to either utilize a six-man rotation or simply move Wesneski to the bullpen, where he would pair with Brown to form a lethal multi-inning duo who could be used in a variety of roles to bolster a struggling relief corps. Assad also has relief experience on his resume, but it would be something of a shock to see the Cubs move the 26-year-old out of the rotation given sensational start to the season that’s seen him pitch to a 1.70 ERA in eight starts. It’s also possible that if Hendricks’s struggles continue the club could look to remove him from the rotation, although his lone relief appearance at the big league level came all the way back in 2016.

Cubs Place Yency Almonte On 15-Day Injured List

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  • The Cubs’ relief corps took a hit this afternoon as the club placed right-hander Yency Almonte on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder strain. Almonte has been a rare bright spot in a struggling Cubs bullpen this season, pitching to a solid 3.45 ERA with a 3.34 FIP in 15 2/3 innings of work since coming over from the Dodgers alongside first baseman Michael Busch in a trade this past offseason. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) that there’s no timeline for Almonte’s return to action, leaving the Cubs to piece together solutions in the bullpen while he joins Julian Merryweather, Daniel Palencia, and Drew Smyly in departing the bullpen for the injured list in recent weeks, though right-hander Ben Brown’s recent move from the rotation to the bullpen in deference to Justin Steele could help to fortify the club’s relief corps.

Cubs, Kyle McGowin Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have purchased the contract of right-hander Kyle McGowin from the Atlantic League’s Charleston Dirty Birds, the independent team announced (on X). According to the transaction log at MLB.com, he’s headed to Double-A Tennessee.

McGowin suited up at the MLB level for the Nationals each season between 2018-21. He made a career-high 27 appearances in 2021, pitching to a 4.20 ERA through 30 innings. Washington outrighted him off the 40-man roster at the end of that season. McGowin hasn’t pitched in the majors since then. He spent part of last season in Triple-A with the Astros, struggling to a 7.36 ERA over 62 1/3 frames in the Pacific Coast League.

The 32-year-old made a pair of impressive starts in the Atlantic League. He fanned 11 against one walk over 10 innings of four-run ball. McGowin pitched almost exclusively in relief during his MLB time with the Nats, but he has spent most of his minor league career as a starter. He owns a 5.08 ERA in parts of six Triple-A campaigns and has a managed a 4.34 mark through six years at the Double-A level.

Cubs Place Dansby Swanson On Injured List, Reinstate Seiya Suzuki

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The Cubs are placing shortstop Dansby Swanson on the 10-day injured list due to a right knee sprain, with outfielder Seiya Suzuki reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move. The move is retroactive to May 8, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Swanson has been bothered by his knee since playing the Astros a few weeks ago, tweaking it during a slide, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic on X. That timeline corresponds with a downturn in Swanson’s production, as he was hitting .236/.310/.393 after the Houston series but just .150/.227/.225 since.

The fact that he’s been able to play through the issue perhaps suggests it isn’t major and he’ll be able to make a quick return, though further updates will undoubtedly be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Nico Hoerner should cover shortstop for however long Swanson is out, which could lead to Nick Madrigal or Miles Mastrobuoni covering the keystone. Neither of them are having a good year at the plate, with Madrigal at .217/.265/.283 for the year and Mastrobuoni at a dismal .000/.067/.000.

Swapping one of those two in for Swanson will hurt the Cubs’ lineup, but that will be at least partially offset by the return of Suzuki. He was hitting a scorching hot .305/.368/.525 through 15 games before a right oblique strain sent him to the IL.

Cody Bellinger has been acting as the club’s designated hitter for the past three games since he was reinstated from his own IL stint, but one of the two will have to be in the field if the Cubs want both bats in the lineup on a regular basis. Those two figure to be sharing the DH spot and outfield playing time with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ and Mike Tauchman.

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