NEWSLETTER
The collision at third base this weekend, which knocked Jason Heyward out of the game against the Giants, unfortunately was fairly serious.
Heyward is going on the concussion IL, and won’t be back for at least another five days:
The #Cubs today placed OF Jason Heyward on the seven-day concussion IL (retroactive to 9/12) and selected OF Trayce Thompson from @IowaCubs.
OF Michael Hermosillo has been transferred to the 60-day IL. pic.twitter.com/p20K3gU36V
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 14, 2021
We already knew that Michael Hermosillo (forearm) wasn’t coming back this year, so his transfer is just a procedural matter to open up a 40-man spot for Thompson. Mostly, with this news, you just hope Heyward’s injury isn’t too serious. Concussion stuff always makes you nervous.
Thompson, 30, came to the Cubs midseason on a minor league deal, long having established himself as a guy who can hit at Triple-A with huge power, but who couldn’t carry it forward in brief shots with the White Sox, Dodgers, Athletics, and then White Sox again from 2015-18. Now he’ll get a 2021 shot with the Cubs, albeit in what will probably be a very limited role.
This year, Thompson has been like an extreme version of Patrick Wisdom’s bat at Triple-A, hitting for tons of power, taking a lot of walks, and striking out at an uncomfortably high rate, especially for the minors. He’s currently hitting .233/.344/.492 for Iowa (122 wRC+), with a 32.4% K rate. He seems less likely to be a “breakout” type for the Cubs, who have declined to give him a big league look to this point, but he is certainly a candidate to stick around in the organization after this year if each side likes the fit. I don’t expect it would be as part of the 40-man, so it would have to be a minor league deal that both sides were into.
