Don’t get comfy, Mr. Britton.
The Chicago Cubs have once again spun the wheel of destiny, plucking a waived player from the ether and flinging out another. That is to say, the Cubs have claimed lefty Drake Britton off of waivers from the Red Sox, and designated righty Gonzalez Germen for assignment to open up a spot on the 40-man roster, which remains full. Germen was claimed just a couple weeks ago (and my full write-up remained in draft mode for good reason), and now the Cubs will likely try and sneak him through waivers so he can be outrighted to AAA Iowa. Many teams have tried it so far this offseason with Germen, and none has yet succeeded.
As for Britton, he may be the Cubs’ best pitching claim yet, though you’ll forgive me if I save the full write-up for a week or so, just to be sure he’s sticking around.
I wrote about Britton earlier this week when he was DFA’d, and wondered if the Cubs might take a chance. If you missed it, this provides the gist on Britton:
With the Cubs likely to enter Spring Training with several lefties competing for one or two spots in the bullpen, you have to wonder if they’ll take a look at recently DFA’d Red Sox lefty Drake Britton (who, yes, was drafted and developed during the Epstein/Hoyer days there). The 25-year-old has had so-so success on his way up the minors as a starter, but was solid in very limited bullpen duty for the Red Sox the last two years. Britton is out of minor league options, which undoubtedly factored into the DFA. If the Cubs did try to squeeze him on the 40-man roster, they could let him compete for a bullpen job, and, if he doesn’t win one out of Spring Training, they could try and outright him to AAA Iowa.
That’s the basic story with Britton, who likely enters the crowded (even moreso after today’s Pedro Feliciano report) bullpen mix, competing for a lefty job out of Spring Training. If he doesn’t win it, and the Cubs are able to outright him successfully to Iowa, Britton could continue working on becoming a full-time reliever, or he could go back to the rotation.
As I said, I’ll have more on Britton, soon. The Red Sox are absolutely stacked with good young pitching at or near the MLB level, and then they went out and added a bunch of pitchers this offseason, so don’t take the fact that Britton was squeezed out as a sign that he’s not an interesting arm. He is.