Matt Szczur’s season-long shuttle between AAA and the big leagues brought him back to the Cubs today, as he joins the team in San Francisco.
Szczur is taking David Ross’s spot on the roster, as Ross has been placed on the family medical emergency leave list (Muskat, Rogers). I’m not sure what the issue is just yet, but hopefully everything will be OK with Ross’s family.
He’ll be out at least three days, but up to seven days. Depending on how long he is out, the Cubs may elect to shuffle the roster around a bit, perhaps to bring up another defensively-inclined catcher. Rosters expand in five days, however, so they should have the option to freely do that soon anyway.
For now, Miguel Montero and Kyle Schwarber are the two catchers on the roster. Jon Lester, whom Ross regularly catches, is scheduled to start on Saturday, incidentally, the only time the Cubs face a righty starter (Mat Latos) in the four games after today.
None of that, mind you, is the primary concern here, but I did want to update you on the baseball side of things.
Szczur was hitting .292/.355/.442 at Iowa, but has hit just .217/.250/.333 in 65 up-and-down plate appearances at the big league level this year.