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Nicky Lopez

Cubs, Nicky Lopez Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs and veteran infielder Nicky Lopez agreed to a minor league contract over the weekend, as first indicated on the MiLB.com transaction log. Lopez opted out of a minor league deal with the Yankees last week and quickly returned for what’s now a third stint with the Cubs organization this season alone. Lopez was already back in the lineup with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate yesterday.

Lopez signed a minor league deal with Chicago back in February. He didn’t make the big league roster in camp and took an opt-out in his deal, after which he signed a major league pact with the Angels. That proved to be a short-lived stint, with Lopez lasting only five games before being cut loose. After clearing waivers, Lopez signed a major league deal with the Cubs and appeared in 14 games off the bench before being designated for assignment again. He’s since signed minor league deals with the D-backs and Yankees but opted out of both.

It’s been a dizzying season, transaction-wise, for the versatile Lopez. He’s signed contracts with four different organizations but tallied only 19 games and 28 plate appearances in the majors. Lopez has gone just 1-for-24 with four walks (and only three strikeouts) in that tiny sample of sparse playing time. His Triple-A work between the Cubs, D-backs and Yankees has (of course) been better than that — but still not great. In 42 games, he’s taken 178 turns at the plate and batted .259/.309/.315.

Lopez has rarely provided much help with the bat, however. He’s the consummate glove-first utility infielder. While he did post an out-of-the-blue .300/.365/.378 performance in 565 plate appearances with the 2021 Royals, Lopez has limped to a .229/.300/.283 big league batting line in parts of four subsequent seasons and carries a modest .245/.310/.311 line in 2374 plate appearances as a major leaguer.

Though he’s lacking at the plate, Lopez is a roughly average runner with a plus glove all around the infield. He’s spent more than 2300 innings at both middle infield positions and drawn high-end grades from Statcast at each position. Defensive Runs Saved isn’t as keen on his work at shortstop but grades him as an elite second baseman. Lopez hasn’t spent as much time at the hot corner (433 innings), but both Statcast’s Outs Above Average (9) and DRS (6) feel he’s been outstanding there.

The Cubs’ needs in the infield don’t look as pressing after Willi Castro was added at the deadline and now that top prospect Matt Shaw has caught fire (.328/.349/.770, seven homers in 63 plate appearances post-All-Star break). But Lopez offers some versatility and depth at multiple positions, and he could be an option to join the club when rosters expand to 28 in September, providing skipper Craig Counsell with some late-game options in terms of both pinch-running and defensive shuffling.

Nicky Lopez Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With Yankees

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Infielder Nicky Lopez has opted out of his minor league deal with the Yankees and is now a free agent, according to a report from Robert Murray of FanSided yesterday. Lopez had signed with the organization early last month.

The 30-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Royals back in 2016 and made his MLB debut during the 2019 season. He was a light-hitting middle infielder for his first two seasons in Kansas City, with an atrocious .228/.279/.307 (55 wRC+) line in 159 games across those two seasons. While he was roughly a replacement level player overall in those two seasons, he broke out in a big way during the 2021 season. That year, he slashed .300/.365/.378 with a wRC+ of 104, and combined that roughly average slash line with elite defense at shortstop and 22 stolen bases to put together a 5.5 fWAR season.

That version of Lopez from 2022 looked like a potential All-Star, but his .347 BABIP that year proved to be unsustainable. He dropped back down to a wRC+ of 55 in 2022, and while his strong defense and baserunning allowed him to remain better than replacement level he hasn’t fared quite that well in the years since. He bounced between Kansas City, Atlanta, and the south side of Chicago in 2023 and ’24, slashing a modestly improved .238/.317/.299 (77 wRC+) with a high-contact approach (15.1% strikeout rate) but still failed to hit for enough power or post a high enough BABIP to offer even average offensive production.

After demonstrating declining speed and defense as he entered his late 20s, Lopez has struggled to hold down a big league job in his age-30 campaign. He’s bounced between the Cubs, Angels, Diamondbacks, and Yankees organizations throughout the year but has made it into just 19 big league games with Chicago and Anaheim. In 28 plate appearances in the majors this year, he’s gone just 1-for-24 with four walks and four strikeouts. His numbers at Triple-A for Arizona and New York’s affiliates, meanwhile, have been better but still lackluster as he’s slashed .266/.316/.323 with an 11.5% strikeout rate.

No one should be signing Lopez for his offense, but he still provides above-average defense and can be a decent contact-oriented pinch hitter. That’s enough to be a potentially useful bench piece, and with the trade deadline having come and gone it seems likely some team will sign Lopez as a depth option in the coming days. He’ll likely be limited to minor league offers, but it’s possible a team with a particularly thin infield mix could look to add him to their bench immediately in order to shore up their roster for the stretch run. The Yankees, for their part, have much less of a need for that sort of infield depth after the club picked up Ryan McMahon, Amed Rosario, and Jose Caballero to transform their bench mix ahead of the deadline earlier this week. Jorbit Vivas and Braden Shewmake remain on the 40-man roster as potential depth options, as well.

Yankees To Sign Nicky Lopez To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees are signing infielder Nicky Lopez to a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Lopez will presumably report to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in the coming days.

Lopez, 30, has been a major league regular for a few years now. However, he has bounced around in 2025, hitting the fringes of various rosters. He started the year with the Cubs on a minor league deal but opted out when he didn’t break camp. That led to a big league deal with the Angels, though he was designated for assignment three weeks into the season. He was then signed by the Cubs, this time to a big league deal, though he was designated for assignment a month later. He then landed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks but opted out of that deal a few days ago.

He has an awful .042/.179/.042 slash line in the majors this year, though in just 28 scattered plate appearances. He hit .267/.303/.317 on that minor league deal with the Snakes more recently, though that only translated to a wRC+ of 46 in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

In his big league career, he has generally been a glove-first player. He had a strong .300/.365/.378 showing in 2021 but that now looks like a clear outlier. Since then, in over 1200 plate appearances, he has a .229/.300/.283 line. On defense, he has extensive experience in the middle infield, with plenty of time at third base as well. He’s also made brief appearances at first base, left field and even on the mound.

The Yankees aren’t getting much out of their second base position, with DJ LeMahieu not having a great season. They seem likely to pursue a third base upgrade at the deadline, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. then being moved to second base, pushing LeMahieu into a bench role. For now, Lopez gives them some veteran non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images

Nicky Lopez Opts Out Of Diamondbacks Deal

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Veteran infielder Nicky Lopez triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the D-backs, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Teams typically have 48 hours to decide whether to add a player to the 40-man roster or grant him his release when the player triggers an out clause, but Murray adds that Lopez will hit the open market, so it seems Arizona has already made up its mind.

The 30-year-old Lopez hit just .267/.303/.317 through 109 turns at the plate in a supercharged offensive environment with Arizona’s Triple-A Reno affiliate. He continued showing strong contact skills, fanning in only 8.3% of his plate appearances, but Lopez showed no real power and walked at only a 4.6% clip. He went 1-for-24 in 19 games between the Cubs and Angels earlier this year while receiving sparse playing time as a glove-first option off the bench.

Lopez is a defensive-minded utility infielder who can handle either middle infield spot or third base. He’s made a few brief cameos in left field as well but has just 17 major league innings at the position. Back in 2021, he posted an out-of-nowhere .300/.365/.378 batting line with 22 steals (in 23 tries) and plus-plus defense at shortstop. Baseball-Reference valued that season at 4.4 wins above replacement, and FanGraphs credited him with an even gaudier 5.5 WAR. Since that time, Lopez has proven 2021’s offensive output to be an outlier; he’s slashed only .229/.300/.283 in 1215 subsequent plate appearances.

Diamondbacks Sign Nicky Lopez To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed infielder Nicky Lopez to a minor league deal, per Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports. The veteran has been assigned to the Triple-A Reno Aces and should join that club in the coming days.

Lopez, 30, has been fairly nomadic this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in February but then opted out when he didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He signed a big league deal with the Angels but was designated for assignment about three weeks into the season. He elected free agency and returned to the Cubs on a major league deal. He lasted about a month on that roster before getting another DFA and heading to the open market yet again, which allowed him to sign this deal with Arizona.

Around those transactions, he has a .042/.179/.042 line in 28 plate appearances this year. For his career, his offense has been better than that but still below league average. He has a .245/.310/.311 line and 72 wRC+ in 2,374 plate appearances on the whole.

Though he lacks punch at the plate, Lopez can provide value with his glove. He has over 2,000 career innings at both middle infield positions. Defensive Runs Saved considered him good at short until souring on him recently. Outs Above Average is still a fan, giving Lopez a +33 in his career, though a lot of that is an outlier +25 in 2021. Both metrics consider him solidly above average at the keystone. He’s also spent time at the infield corners and in left field.

The Diamondbacks have a fairly crowded infield mix at present. Josh Naylor, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo and Eugenio Suárez are getting regular playing time from right to left, with Jordan Lawlar and Tim Tawa mixing in as well. Pavin Smith and Randal Grichuk are platooning in the designated hitter spot most of the time.

But as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as a bad minor league deal. The Snakes also just lost a different veteran infielder as Ildemaro Vargas opted out of his minor league deal this week, so Lopez will effectively replace Vargas as the club’s veteran non-roster infielder.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images

Nicky Lopez Elects Free Agency

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Infielder Nicky Lopez went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated for assignment by the Cubs, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Chicago sent him outright to Triple-A Iowa, but Lopez has instead elected free agency. He can now sign with any team.

The 30-year-old Lopez is a versatile, glove-first utility player who’s seen considerable time at shortstop, second base and third base in his professional career. He grades as a plus defender at second base and third base, in particular, and is a roughly average runner by measure of Statcast’s sprint speed metric.

Lopez had a nice season at the plate with the 2021 Royals when he hit .300/.365/.378 in 565 plate appearances, but that’s been a clear outlier in an otherwise lackluster career with the bat. Since that time, the 2016 fifth-rounder (Royals) has mustered a meager .229/.300/.283 batting line (66 wRC+, or 34% worse than league-average offensive output). He’s played a combined 19 games between the Cubs and Angels this season but produced just one hit in 24 at-bats. He’s only struck out four times and has also drawn four walks.

Lopez isn’t going to return to that 2021 peak, but he can plausibly be expected to provide more with the bat than he’s managed in 2025’s small sample thus far. A team looking for some depth at any of the three infield positions left of first base — particularly some defensive-minded help — figures to give him a look before long.

The Cubs scooped him up on a major league deal and plugged him right onto the big league roster last time he was a free agent. It’s possible another team will do the same in the coming days, but signed a minor league deal in the offseason and could need to bide his time in Triple-A with whatever club takes a flier on him next. In 91 career games at the top minor league level, he’s a .304/.399/.444 hitter with more walks (50) than strikeouts (35) through 407 plate appearances.

Cubs Designate Nicky Lopez For Assignment

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Infielder Nicky Lopez has been designated for assignment by the Cubs, reports Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. That was the expected corresponding move when it was reported earlier that Matt Shaw was coming back up to the big leagues. The Cubs’ 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Lopez, 30, has been bouncing in and out of the Cubs’ plans this year. He signed a minor league deal with them in the winter but opted out of that deal when he didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He then signed a big league deal with the Angels but was released by that club after a bit less than a month on the roster. At that time, Shaw had just been optioned to the minors after a sluggish start to the season, so the Cubs brought Lopez back and gave him a big league deal.

He didn’t get too much out of the opportunity, mostly getting plugged in as a defensive specialist. In almost a month with the Cubs, he got into 19 games but stepped to the plate just 28 times. He only hit .042/.179/.042 in those.

That’s a bit of an extreme microcosm of his whole career, as he has generally been a glove-first infielder. In 2,374 plate appearances, he has a .245/.310/.311 batting line and 72 wRC+. But he has generally received strong grades for his infield defense. He has spent most of his time at the middle infield positions but also has logged some work in the corners and in left field.

With Shaw coming back up, Lopez has been nudged from rarely-used bench piece into DFA limbo. He is likely to end up on waivers in the coming days. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so he might be on the open market soon. He could perhaps garner interest from clubs looking for a bench infielder who’s good with the leather.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images

Cubs Expected To Recall Matt Shaw

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The Cubs opened the 2024 season with top prospect Matt Shaw in their lineup, hoping he could immediately step up and seize the everyday job at third base. The former first-round pick struggled in 18 games before being optioned to Triple-A, but it seems like he’s set to rejoin the roster after an impressive run in Des Moines. Cubs skipper Craig Counsell told the team’s beat yesterday that another promotion for Shaw was “under consideration” (link via Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic). Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this morning that Shaw is indeed expected to join the roster today — likely at the expense of veteran infielder Nicky Lopez, whom Chicago will try to trade (presumably after a DFA). Lopez did not travel to Miami with the Cubs for their upcoming series against the Marlins, Heyman adds.

Shaw, 23, hit just .172/.294/.241 in 68 plate appearances during his trial run to open the season. He walked an impressive 10 times in that small sample (14.7%) but also fanned on 18 occasions (26.5%). His batted-ball metrics were at the bottom of the scale; he averaged only 82.7 mph off the bat, barreled just one ball and posted a lowly 22.5% hard-hit rate (all per Statcast).

Sharma reports that the Cubs sent Shaw to Triple-A to scale back the size of a leg kick that had been part of his mechanics at the plate for years — a trait they believed would help his swing play better against big league pitching. Shaw struggled a bit early on, with three hits in 27 plate appearances after being sent down. Sharma notes that he wasn’t working with the new leg kick in games yet until this past week, but Shaw got hot at the plate with his old mechanics as he worked to hone his new ones — and upon incorporating that new, quieter leg kick into Triple-A games this weekend he homered four times in two games.

It’s hard to attribute that solely to the change in his timing mechanism, but Shaw currently boasts five round-trippers in his past six games and is hitting .321/.418/.641 with more walks (13.2%) than strikeouts (12.1%) in his past 91 trips to the plate. He’s piled up a dozen extra-base hits (six homers, five doubles, one triple), gone 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts and seen jumps in his batted-ball data (88.6 mph average exit velocity, 109.9 mph max exit velo, 43.8% hard-hit rate).

By measure of wRC+, the Cubs have had the second-worst production in MLB from their third basemen in 2025, leading only the division-rival Brewers. Chicago third baseman have turned in a feeble .184/.271/.222 batting line — 53% worse than league-average production at the plate. Much of that is due to Shaw’s own struggles early on, but the Cubs have received negligible production overall from the group of Lopez, Jon Berti, Gage Workman, Vidal Brujan and Justin Turner when they’ve manned the hot corner as well.

Lopez, 30, has appeared in 14 games since signing with the Cubs but has just 22 plate appearances. He’s been used more as a defensive specialist and has gone just 1-for-18 with four walks and three strikeouts in 22 plate appearances overall.

Cubs Sign Nicky Lopez, Designate Gage Workman

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The Cubs announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Nicky Lopez to a big league deal. Infielder and Rule 5 pick Gage Workman was designated for assignment to open a spot on the roster. Photographer Sam Bernero first spotted Lopez heading into Wrigley Field this afternoon and tweeted out a photo she snapped. Shane Riordan of 670 The Score subsequently reported that Lopez, an Octagon client, was signing a major league deal.

Chicago also selected the contract of recently acquired lefty Drew Pomeranz, optioned righty Gavin Hollowell to Triple-A Iowa and transferred lefty Justin Steele from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL (thus opening a 40-man spot for Pomeranz). Steele recently underwent elbow surgery and will miss the remainder of the 2025 season, so his move to the 60-day IL was a formality.

Lopez was with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee in spring training but didn’t make the Opening Day club. He opted out of that deal and signed with the Angels, who needed some infield depth due to a handful of injuries. The Halos reinstated shortstop Zach Neto last week and designated Lopez for assignment, after which he elected free agency.

The 30-year-old Lopez appeared in five games and was hitless in six plate appearances in his short stint with the Angels. He’ll hope for a larger look with the Cubs, who have some questions in the infield after optioning struggling top prospect Matt Shaw and seeing the now-designated-for-assignment Workman struggle at the hot corner as well. Veteran utilityman Jon Berti has been seeing more time at third base recently, though he hasn’t hit much either — just .250/.344/.250 in an admittedly small sample of 32 plate appearances.

Lopez, like Berti, brings a versatile and high quality glove to the Cubs. He’s spent the bulk of his career in the middle infield where he grades as a plus-plus defender at both positions. He’s less experienced at third base but still has strong grades in nearly 400 frames there (7 Defensive Runs Saved, 6 Outs Above Average).

Excellent as Lopez is on the defensive side of the coin, his bat leaves plenty to be desired. He’s a career .247/.311/.313 hitter in 2352 plate appearances at the MLB level, and even that modest production is skewed by what now looks like a clear outlier campaign in 2021, when he batted .300/.365/.378. In three-plus seasons since that time, Lopez has limped to a .232/.301/.286 line between the Royals, Braves, White Sox and Angels.

Workman, 25, was selected out of the Tigers organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft and made the Opening Day roster after he hit .364/.420/.705 in 50 spring plate appearances. He hasn’t carried that outstanding production over to the regular season. He’s appeared in nine games but tallied only 15 plate appearances, during which he’s gone 2-for-14 with a walk. Workman never got a true look with the Cubs, which isn’t surprising, as it’s difficult for contending clubs to carry a career minor leaguer who can’t be optioned to the minors.

Workman is viewed as a plus defender at third base with plenty of raw power and too much swing-and-miss in his offensive profile. He spent the 2024 season with the Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, where he batted .280/.366/.476 with 18 homers, 30 steals, an 11.7% walk rate and a bloated 27.5% strikeout rate in his third season of action at that level. He’s yet to appear in a Triple-A game.

Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Workman will be placed on outright waivers and offered to the rest of the league (excluding the Tigers). If he goes unclaimed, he will by rule be offered back to the Tigers for $50K.

The veteran Pomeranz hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 due to a lengthy series of injuries. He inked a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason and tossed 9 2/3 frames with their Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma before being traded to the Cubs for cash. He allowed five earned runs (4.66 ERA) on nine hits and six walks (plus two hit batsmen) during that short stint with Tacoma. Clearly, Pomeranz’s command was an issue, but he also fanned 14 of his 43 opponents (32.6%) and sat 92.3 mph on his heater — a good bit north of the 90-91 mph he was sitting at during minor league stints with the Padres and Dodgers over the past two seasons.

Nicky Lopez Elects Free Agency

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April 20: Lopez has elected free agency, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

April 18: The Angels announced that shortstop Zach Neto has been reinstated from the injured list. It was reported yesterday that Neto was likely to be reinstated for this weekend. In a corresponding move, infielder Nicky Lopez has been designated for assignment.

Lopez, 30, signed with the Halos just before Opening Day. He had signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the winter but opted out of that pact when he wasn’t going to break camp with the Cubbies.

For the Angels, they were looking to cover up for a number of infield injuries. Neto underwent shoulder surgery in November and was going to miss the early portions of the 2025 season. Third baseman Anthony Rendon required hip surgery in February and is going to be out of action for a while. To help fill in the infield depth, the club brought in Lopez, Yoán Moncada, Tim Anderson, Kevin Newman and J.D. Davis. Moncada has also been hurt and is currently on the IL due to a thumb sprain.

Despite all of the injuries, Lopez hasn’t really received any playing time. He has six plate appearances across five games, not reaching base in any of them. Anderson had taken over the shortstop position. He didn’t hit much but his glovework received decent grades in his small sample of work. With Neto’s return, he’ll be downgraded into a bench role anyhow. Luis Rengifo is holding down third while Kyren Paris is having a breakout, taking over the second base position while hitting .326/.426/.717.

Lopez already seemed somewhat superfluous on the roster, with Neto’s return squeezing him out even further. The Angels will now technically have a week of DFA limbo time to figure out what’s next, but Lopez has enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so he seems likely to be a free agent within a week’s time.

Generally speaking, he’s been a light-hitting glove-first infielder in his career. He has a .247/.311/.313 batting line in 2,352 big league plate appearances, with that line translating to a 73 wRC+. Reviews on his shortstop glovework are mixed as he has -11 Defensive Runs Saved but 33 Outs Above Average. He also has lots of experience at the other infield positions with good marks there, and some brief left field work as well.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images

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