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Adbert Alzolay

Cubs Place Adbert Alzolay On 60-Day Injured List

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MARCH 18: The Cubs announced that Alzolay is going on the 60-day injured list. The move clears 40-man roster for Seiya Suzuki.

MARCH 14: Cubs righty Adbert Alzolay, who had been penciled into a rotation spot for 2022, will start the season on the IL due to shoulder tightness, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told reporters today.  Hoyer noted that it will not be a short stint on the IL.  Unsurprisingly, then, Hoyer said the club is interested in adding more pitching.  Overall, Hoyer said, “Certainly we’re going to add a lot more players.”

At present, the Cubs’ rotation projects as Marcus Stroman, Kyle Hendricks, Wade Miley, Alec Mills, and Justin Steele.  All of the top free agent starting pitchers are off the board already, but plenty of back of the rotation hurlers remain available.  Alzolay made 21 starts for the Cubs in 2021, posting a 5.16 ERA in that role.

Ian Happ, set to start the season as the Cubs’ regular left fielder, had a “clean out” elbow procedure in the offseason but is expected to be 100% soon, Hoyer told reporters.

The Cubs recently added shortstop Andrelton Simmons, and Hoyer commented, “We’re happy with our middle infield.”  Nick Madrigal and Nico Hoerner will also figure prominently into that mix.

Cubs Place Adbert Alzolay On 10-Day Injured List

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The Cubs have placed right-hander Adbert Alzolay on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain.  Righty Trevor Megill was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

Alzolay left his start last night in the second inning due to the injury, adding to a disastrous inning for the Cubs that saw the Marlins score 11 runs en route to a 14-10 victory.  Alzolay was charged with six of those runs over his 1 1/3 innings of work, his worst performance in what has been an inconsistent season for the 26-year-old.  Alzolay has a 5.16 ERA over 106 1/3 frames in 2021, as above-average walk and strikeouts rates haven’t been enough to counter a lot of hard contact from opposing batters against Alzolay’s offerings.

After posting a 2.95 ERA over a small sample size of 21 1/3 innings last season, Alzolay was seen as a candidate to step forward and establish himself as a regular member of Chicago’s rotation.  Given how the Cubs have dealt much of their veteran pitching beyond Kyle Hendricks, Alzolay is still a candidate for the 2022 staff almost by default.  Once he returns from the IL, Alzolay will get the rest of this season to make his case heading into Spring Training and ahead of whatever pitching additions the Cubs could make this winter.

Central Notes: White Sox, Cubs, Tigers

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The White Sox rolled out a $128MM payroll on opening day this year, already the highest in franchise history, but don’t expect Chicago to curb their spending now. Team options for the newly acquired Cesar Hernandez and Craig Kimbrel would bring their payroll for next season up to $150MM — and that’s before arbitration raises – but owner Jerry Reinsdorf and GM Rick Hahn have prepared for this payroll spike and they’re ready for it, per The Athletic’s James Fegan. If Hernandez and/or Kimbrel aren’t part of the 2022 Sox, it won’t be because of their impact on the payroll. Elsewhere from the flyover states…

Central Notes: Twins, Singer, Moustakas, Alzolay

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The Twins have been dealt a series of injuries this season, and another pair of notable players departed last night’s game against the Mariners early. Third baseman Josh Donaldson left for precautionary reasons in the second inning with tightness in his right calf. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons came out shortly thereafter with left ankle tightness (relayed by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune). There’s no indication either player is dealing with anything serious, but each of Donaldson and Simmons landed on the injured list because of issues with those respective areas last season.

Donaldson missed nearly a month with a right calf strain, while Simmons missed a similar amount of time with a sprained left ankle. Given that history, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Twins play things cautiously with their left side infielders. In better news, outfielder Max Kepler, who has been on a rehab assignment at Triple-A St. Paul, could join the big league club by this weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press).

Elsewhere in the Central divisions:

  • Royals right-hander Brady Singer was removed from yesterday’s start after three innings as a precautionary measure after he experienced right posterior shoulder tightness, the team announced. It’s not clear if he’s in jeopardy of missing his next start. The 24-year-old has only managed a 4.76 ERA in 68 innings this season, but Singer’s generally average strikeout and walk numbers (23.3% and 8.2%, respectively) and strong 50.5% groundball rate suggest he’s been a bit unlucky to allow so many runs.
  • Reds manager David Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that infielder Mike Moustakas has had his minor league rehab assignment halted after experiencing some soreness. It doesn’t seem there’s much cause for concern, but Moustakas’ return looks likely to be delayed a few extra days. The Reds have been without the 32-year-old for just under a month due to a right heel contusion. Before the injury, Moustakas got off to a pretty good start, hitting .241/.337/.437 with four homers over 104 plate appearances.
  • The Cubs have been without starter Adbert Alzolay for the past week-plus due to a blister issue. The 26-year-old tells Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago he expects to return at some point during the Cubs upcoming homestand, which runs from June 18-22. Chicago turned to Robert Stock in Alzolay’s place yesterday, but he allowed five runs and issued six walks in just four innings against the Mets. Alzolay has a solid 4.06 ERA/3.63 SIERA in eleven starts this season.

Cubs Select Shelby Miller

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The Cubs have selected right-hander Shelby Miller from their alternate training site in South Bend, per a team announcement. The Cubs also reinstated righty Jason Adam from the injured list and optioned righty Adbert Alzolay and lefty Brad Wieck to the alternate site. These moves come in addition to the reinstatement of Austin Romine and the DFA of Tony Wolters, which were announced earlier in the day.

A first-round pick in 2009, third-place Rookie of the Year finisher in 2013 and All-Star in 2015, Miller appeared to be on a trajectory to superstardom not long ago. He debuted in the Majors as a 21-year-old in 2012 and over the next four seasons tossed 575 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball between the Cardinals and the Braves. The Cards sent him to Atlanta as part of the return for then-star outfielder Jason Heyward, and Atlanta flipped him a year later when the D-backs offered up shortstop Dansby Swanson just months after he’d been selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

Miller’s career fell off a cliff almost immediately after the trade. The righty lost some velocity, lost his control of the strike zone and began giving up considerably more hard contact, leading to more home runs. He was eventually optioned to Triple-A by the D-backs, and the following season he underwent Tommy John surgery. Miller attempted a comeback with the Rangers in in 2019 but had even worse results than he did in Arizona. He’s since spent time with the Brewers organization but didn’t pitch for them in the Majors.

All told, Miller has pitched just 183 big league innings since the conclusion of that All-Star campaign in 2015. He’s been rocked for a 6.89 ERA and 5.21 FIP in that time. Miller did, however, put together a very nice spring showing with the Cubs. In 12 innings, he held opponents to just two earned runs on nine hits and six walks with 16 strikeouts.

There’s little harm for the Cubs in trying to catch lightning in a bottle with Miller, even if recent history provides little indicator that a turnaround is on the horizon. It’ll surprise many readers to learn that he’s still just 30 years old,, and we’ve seen unexpected resurgences at considerably later points in pitchers’ careers than this.

Adbert Alzolay Has Fourth Minor League Option

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The Cubs had been unsure whether right-hander Adbert Alzolay had a fourth minor league option, but they know now: An arbiter decided that he does, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago.

This is good news for the Cubs, who will be able to demote Alzolay this season without worrying about losing him to another team. The 26-year-old hasn’t made a good case for a roster spot this spring, having yielded eight runs (seven earned) over four innings. He was much better in 2020, when he logged a 2.95 ERA/4.15 SIERA and posted 29 strikeouts – albeit with 13 walks  – in 21 1/3 frames.

Alzolay made four starts last year, and it seems likely he’ll factor into the Cubs’ rotation again this season. However, knowing the Cubs can demote him, Alzolay is far from a lock to begin 2021 in the majors. Instead, Chicago could open the campaign with Kyle Hendricks, Jake Arrieta, Zach Davies, Trevor Williams and either Alec Mills or Shelby Miller comprising its starting staff.

NL Notes: Padres, Preller’s Winter, Cubs, Extension Talks, Shelby Miller

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There was a point in the offseason when Padres’ GM A.J. Preller almost acquired Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, and Joe Musgrove on the same day, he said on Jon Heyman and Tony Gwynn Jr.’s Big Time Baseball podcast. Ultimately, it took a span of roughly three weeks to get all three arms dressed in brown, white, and gold. The deals took some finagling, as at one point, at least one of the players who ultimately went to Tampa Bay was slated for both the Snell and Darvish deals. Once the Snell deal went through, Preller and the Cubs had to renegotiate and swap in new names. Preller did not say which of the Rays’ new prospects was also coveted by the Cubs. But he did touch on their pursuit of one-time free agent and current Los Angeles Dodger Trevor Bauer. Preller and the Padres felt Bauer was going to take his time making a decision, and they didn’t want to be left holding the bag, so to speak, if he chose to go elsewhere. The Padres executed their trade plans instead, completing the most dramatic winters in recent memory. Despite the myriad additions, the Padres will have room for an in-season addition, should they feel the need, noted Preller. More on the Cubs…

  • After months – years, even – of trade speculation around their star core, the Cubs see varying levels of uncertainty around the respective futures of Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, or Kris Bryant, writes Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. Bryant seems destined for free agency. Rizzo is confident that he’ll remain a Cub beyond 2021, and the Cubs’ affection for Rizzo has never wavered. He’s the likeliest of the trio to receive an extension. Baez wants an extension, but given the potential options in free agency next winter, the Cubs would be wise to wait unless the Wasserman client succumbs to team friendly terms. Our speculation need not end on April 1st, however. Unlike some other players seeking extensions – namely and most apropos, Francisco Lindor – Baez has no problem continuing extension talks into the season, notes Wittenmyer. It’s worth noting that Wasserman also represents Kyle Hendricks, with whom the Cubs worked out an extension late in March, 2019.
  • Newfound command of his slider has helped Shelby Miller make a compelling case to make the Cubs’ roster, per Meghan Montemurro and Lamond Pope of the Chicago Tribune. Said Miller, “Opposing hitters have to respect a whole other pitch that they haven’t seen. I’ve just got to keep throwing it, and hopefully it gets better. And I’m just going to go out there and get outs. That’s all I can say really.” Miller is a long shot to make the rotation out of camp with Hendricks, Zach Davies, Jake Arrieta, Trevor Williams, Alec Mills, and Adbert Alzolay ahead of Miller in the pecking order. He’s in the mix for a bullpen spot, however. A lot may depend on whether Alzolay is granted another option season. If not, he’ll be on the roster in one form or another. Miller is a non-roster invitee who would need to be added to the 40-man roster to make the team. The Cubs have one open 40-man roster spot.

Several Players Awaiting Clarity On Minor League Option Status

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In the minutes after we posted our annual list of out-of-options players earlier today, several readers pointed out players they believed to have been omitted. In following up with various team and agency sources around the league, it became clear that there’s some uncertainty as to how the 2020 season will impact some players’ number of minor league options.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explores the situation at greater length, reporting that Cardinals outfielder Justin Williams isn’t even sure whether he has a minor league option remaining. Neither, according to Goold, are the Cardinals themselves. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes that the Angels are in a similar spot with right-hander Jaime Barria. Goold lists the Cubs’ Adbert Alzolay as another player currently in this state of limbo.

The reason? The commissioner’s office, the MLB Players Association and Major League teams still need to determine whether last year’s shortened slate of games counts as a full season under the league’s option structure. An arbiter is expected to make a final decision sometime this month, per Fletcher. Goold writes that a decision is expected “any time now,” adding that the Cardinals have been awaiting clarity for weeks.

By rule, players are given three option years after being selected to a team’s 40-man roster. Being optioned to the minor leagues, even if it’s out of Spring Training, counts as an option year — so long as the player spends 20 days down on the farm. Players are granted three option years, but there’s no limit to the number of times they can be optioned back and forth throughout the course of one of those individual option seasons.

It is possible for some players to be granted a fourth option year. This is most typical among players who have missed considerable time due to injury. Players who are on the 40-man roster and have exhausted those three minor league options before accruing five full seasons of play can be granted this exemption. A “full” season by that definition entails 90 or more days on an active Major League or Minor League roster (but not the injured list).

As Goold explains with regard to Williams, he fell shy of 90 days on an active roster in 2013, 2014 and 2019. His fifth “full” season would’ve been 2020 — you can see where this is going — but the season itself was not 90 days in length. Beyond the fact that the season itself was only 67 days long, players who were “optioned” weren’t sent to the minor leagues to compete in games but rather to alternate training sites to participate in simulated game settings against others in the organization.

Generally speaking, Major League clubs are keenly aware of the out-of-options players on other rosters, but it was clear in asking around today that there’s presently a disconnect because of last year’s shortened season. Even if you were to downplay the significance of one team not being clear on another team’s player, the reports from Goold and Fletcher underscore the confusion surrounding the issue.

It seems something of this nature should have been planned for during last year’s return-to-play negotiations, but as we saw with the months-long back-and-forth between MLB and the MLBPA, the March agreement under which the season was renewed had many issues that were not fully addressed. It’s not necessarily a surprise that 2021 option status wasn’t a major talking point up front, but it’s nonetheless a bit perplexing that an entire offseason has elapsed without a resolution. Minor league options — or a lack thereof — will be a considerably driving factor in spring roster moves around the game over the next four weeks.

Cubs Notes: Epstein, Extensions, Catchers

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Theo Epstein has largely led his clubs with positive, progressive messaging that, if anything, lands on the overly-diplomatic end of the spectrum. True to form, he and the Chicago Cubs organization are encouraging their players to speak their minds as they so choose, writes Tim Stebbins of NBC Sports. Though Epstein’s comments may come off as hollow, there’s little to suggest he’s being anything but sincere. He’s been up front about wanting to organizationally (and personally) take a long, inward look at themselves for traces of the systemic racism that’s been at the fore of the country’s cultural conversation. These comments stemmed from a tweet from Adbert Alzolay that voiced some of his concerns about camp in South Bend. That tweet, however, was deleted after some of his facts proved to be inaccurate, per The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma. This Here’s more from Chicago…

  • Epstein more-or-less put the kibosh on any potential extensions for Chicago’s many popular, star players, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. After Kris Bryant recently re-iterated his desire to stay in Chicago, it’s a little disquieting to hear Epstein so thoroughly shut down the idea of extending much-beloved Cubs like Bryant, Javier Baez, or Willson Contreras. On the other hand, it’s certainly a confusing time in baseball, and there are plenty of logistics to keep the organization busy just in trying to keep players safe and return to the game of baseball. The market for star players like Bryant and Baez could not be any more uncertain, and with at least two seasons before any of their core players reach free agency, the Cubs have the luxury of time. If nothing else, next offseason will offer a fascinating data point as Mookie Betts hits the open market. The Cubs certainly have the funds to re-up their stars, but they might just want to wait to see the going rate for a superstar in these uncertain times.
  • On the field, manager David Ross is mulling the possibility of carrying three catchers once the season starts, per Bastian (via Twitter). Given the somewhat chaotic terms of the 2020 season, it would not be surprising to see many teams go this route. For the Cubs specifically, Victor Caratini proved enough with the bat last season to get some at-bats at first base or designated hitter while Contreras continues to serve as the everyday catcher. The switch-hitting Caratini, 26, hit .266/.348/.447 across 279 plate appearances. He saw 23 starts at first base and 2 at third base to go along with 59 starts behind the plate. Josh Phegley would figure to be the third catcher. Phegley hasn’t rated all that well defensively, but the former Oakland Athletic did pop 12 homers with a .411 slugging percentage last season.

Cubs Rotation Candidates

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There’s a chance the Cubs begin the 2020 season with Tyler Chatwood back in the rotation, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times. In the final season of the three-year, $38MM deal signed before 2018, Chatwood arguably represents the most reliable option currently on the roster. Chatwood recovered from a disappointing first season in Chicago with 76 2/3 innings of 3.76 ERA/4.28 FIP baseball while mostly serving as a long man out of the pen. In a year in which the Cubs tested out numerous young arms, Chatwood emerged as a reliable alternative for intermittent opportunities in high-leverage situations, though most of his usage came in the middle innings. He did start five games in 2019, going 1-1 with a 3.97 ERA while averaging between four and five innings per start.

Despite Chatwood’s bounceback – at this stage of his career – there’s probably not a lot of unrealized upside to unearth as a rotation arm. The Cubs will look to add arms to push Chatwood for that rotation spot in the spring. Given their financial situation and the volume of competition for the top remaining arms in free agency, it’s unlikely they’ll be players in that space.

Internally, Adbert Alzolay represents the stiffest competition for the fifth starter’s job. He’s also probably the most exciting candidate for Cubs’ fans, who would love to see a 25-year-old homegrown pitcher earn a turn every fifth day. Theo Epstein and company would surely love to get that monkey off their backs as well. The Epstein regime has somewhat famously failed to develop any homegrown pitching over their Chicago tenure. After an uneven 2019 in which he made his big league debut, Alzolay will need a strong spring to take the role outright. With only 12 1/3 innings at the big league level last season, Alzolay maintained his rookie status and remains the Cubs fifth-ranked prospect per MLB.com.

Alec Mills and Jharel Cotton are two other names to keep an eye on. Mills, 28, doesn’t have the prospect pedigree, but he’s been quietly solid when called upon the last two seasons. The former Royals farmhand is a sleeper favorite should Alzolay prove unready. He also happens to be out of options. Cotton was recently acquired from the A’s in the type of low-cost, high-risk move that has become a staple of the Epstein Cubs. Cotton went to Oakland in the mid-2016 deal that sent Josh Reddick and Rich Hill to the Dodgers. For what it’s worth, the Cubs saw enough in Cotton to add him to the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

In terms of long shots, the Cubs added another former Dodgers farmhand, Brock Stewart, during the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. Justin Steele was also added to the 40-man roster. The 24-year-old southpaw made 11 starts in Double-A with a 5.59 ERA. Steele and Stewart rank pretty far down the totem pole, but they’ll have an opportunity to impress the brass in Spring Training.

As of right now, it’s looking like a fairly open competition to take Cole Hamels recently vacated rotation slot. Jon Lester, Yu Darvish, Kyle Hendricks, and Jose Quintana make up the front four, and that’s unlikely to change, barring a Quintana trade. Lester and Darvish have no-trade clauses, and Hendricks ranks among the least-likely Cubs to be traded given the affordable contract that keeps him in Chicago through the 2024 season.

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