Cubs Claim Lefty Alex Hinshaw Off of Waivers

Today the Cubs added yet another fringe arm to the roster, claiming 29-year-old lefty Alex Hinshaw off of waivers from the San Diego Padres. The Cubs transferred Arodys Vizcaino to the 60-day DL to open up a spot for Hinshaw on the 40-man roster.

Hinshaw pitched in relief for the Padres this year, mostly poorly, putting up a 4.50 ERA (remember, he pitches half the time at Petco) and a 1.536 WHIP over 28 innings. Before this season, Hinshaw spent a few years in the high minors with the Giants after making his debut with them back in 2008 and 2009.

Hinshaw has great stuff, as evinced by his huge K-rate throughout his career. He struck out 36 this year in those 28 innings of work, and his carer minor league rate is a robust 11.1 per 9. His worst enemy, however, has been his inability to stay in the zone – he’s walked an absurd 6.4 batters per 9 this year, which is only slightly worse than his career minor league mark of 6.2.

Generally-speaking, he’s thought of as a guy who could be a capable LOOGY, but until he figures out his control problems, he won’t have consistent success (that said, he has held lefties to a sub-.670 OPS this year, so I guess that is relative success). The Cubs are likely to let him pitch at AAA for the next week and a half, and then will bring him up in September when the rosters expand to 40. From there, the Cubs will get a solid month to evaluate what he’s got, and decide whether to keep him for 2013.

Hinshaw isn’t young, but, given the upside and the zero risk, I love this move.

UPDATE: Actually, Hinshaw is expected to join the Cubs *this* week, so they’ll have to bounce someone from the 25-man roster to add him. One of the Cubs’ younger bullpen arms could be shuffled back to Iowa to await September roster expansion.

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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