NEWSLETTER
It’s been a bit of a ridiculous offseason for lefty David Rollins, who was popular enough that he was claimed off of waivers five(!) times (twice by the Cubs), but also fringy enough that he was designated for assignment six(!) times.
Fortunately – for the Cubs, and perhaps for Rollins’ own sanity – he cleared waivers this final time, and has been outrighted to AAA Iowa by the Cubs.
What that means is that the Cubs get to keep him in the organization, and he’s no longer taking up a 40-man roster spot. Rollins will stay in Cubs’ big league camp as a non-roster invitee, per Mark Gonzales.
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From our earlier – like, before the DFA merry-go-round really kicked in – post on Rollins:
Rollins, 26, saw action in the big leagues with the Mariners for parts of the past two seasons, but the results were wanting, despite not-absolutely-terrible peripherals (well, in 2015, anyway; the peripherals in 9.1 big league innings in 2016 were across the board ugly).
Rollins spent most of his 2016 season at AAA, posting a 3.77 ERA and 3.86 FIP over 45.1 innings. He struck out 32, which isn’t all that compelling for an experienced reliever at AAA, but he also issued only four unintentional walks. This is a gentleman with control.
Rollins was suspended 80 games in 2015 for a positive PED test, so there’s also that.
In other words, Rollins is upper-level lefty depth, which is never a bad thing to have hanging around at AAA. I hope for his sake that he is able to stay comfortably in one spot for a while, and maybe even break out.
Jerry Crasnick recently wrote about Rollins’ crazy offseason, and about how tough the process can be on a player.
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