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CUBS ROSTER MOVES — Sure enough, with big reliever Trey Wingenter arriving today from Iowa, the Cubs are making a roster move.
It isn’t Justin Steele going on the IL, but . The cause? A groin strain. (UPDATE: Actually, Steele, too. See below.)
Cubs Roster Moves
You maaaay recall that the Cubs had Lopez sit last week with a groin issue, before bringing him back to pitch this weekend and then disastrously on Monday night. They opted not to do an IL stint that time, and the decision, it appears, came back to bite them. Now Lopez will miss a couple weeks anyway, and the Cubs can’t get that Monday game back.
“If you forgot about Trey Wingenter’s arrival into the Cubs’ organization, I wouldn’t blame you. The waiver claim flew a bit under the radar in the flurry of the Trade Deadline period, and ﷽we haven’t discussed him much since.
Wingenter, a 6’7″ 30-year-old righty who ꦅthrows in the upper-90s with a nasty slider, has seen Major League action over the last several years with the Padres, Tigers, and Red Sox, pretty much always being one of൩ those guys who was a tweak and an opportunity away from sticking in the big leagues. With the Cubs at Triple-A Iowa, he’s thrown 9.2 innings of 2.79 ERA ball, striking out 42.1% of the batters he’s faced, while walking just 7.9%. The sample is small, and he’s an experienced big leaguer pitching in the minors, but it’s been pretty dominant.
For that reason, and because Wingenter is controllable through arbitration if the Cubs wanted to keep him this offseason, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to call him up right now regardless. The Cubs have a whole lot of pitching decisions to make in October and November, and having a little more information on a guy who has long shown serious potential could be useful.”
UPDATE: Justin Steele is to the 15-day IL as part of today’s Cubs roster moves, officially with left elbow tendinitis. I am not really freaking about this – more than when he was scratched, I mean – because I’d long braced myself for him to miss multiple starts. The real freak out would be if the 🐎Cubs said hi🌸s season is over and surgery is on the table.
That does not seem to be the case, at least not so far. Instead, it seems more likely this is just an acknowledgement that it would be silly to push him right now, and thus he’s going to miss at least a couple weeks anyway. Might as well use the IL in that case (especially if it’s possible that the Cubs are REALLY gonna fall out of it soon, and you may wind up wanting to shut him down anyway).
The corresponding move fꦏor Steele has not yet been aꦛnnounced.
UPDATE II: And now we know, it’ll be Jack Neely back up from Iowa.
Neely, whom the Cubs acquired at the deadline in the Mark Leiter Jr. deal, was up with the Cubs for four games near the end of💝 August. And they looked like this:
vsDET: 1.0 IP, 3H, 4ER, 1BB, 0K (HR)
vsDET: 1.0 IP, 0H, 0ER, 1BB, 2K
@MIA: 1.0 IP, 0H, 0ER, 0BB, 1K
@PIT: 1.0 IP, 3H, 2ER, 0BB, 2K (HR)
Then, the Cubs sent him back down when they wanted to give Daniel Palencia a shot. Here’s what Brett had to say at the time, which still applies just fine today:
As for Neely, he also has that kind of stuff, but this was always something of a cup of coffee for him (since he had to go on the 40-man roster by November anyway). The development goal for him is to be a contributor next year, even if only in an up-down capacity because of how maওny quality young arms the Cubs have in this tier. This first taste of the big leagues will hopefully be useful for his development, and it’s still possible we see him again before the year is up.
