As expected, switch-hitting third baseman Jeimer Candelario has been called back up to the big league team (he’s starting at 3B tonight), returning the bench to a less-minuscule four players.
Candelario, 23, has been up twice before in his career, neither for very long, and neither with a ton of immediate success (but, again, we’re talking about just 36 plate appearances). He’s one of the Cubs’ best position prospects, but his positional limitations – third and first base – don’t offer the big league team much in the way of immediate help beyond the bench and a periodic spot start.
At this point, Candelario has demonstrated in two stints that he can rake at AAA. We won’t really know what he could do at the big league level until he gets a nice long stretch of consistent playing time, and, to be fair, I’m not quite sure when or if that’s going to happen with the Cubs. Here’s hoping he somehow figures his way into the mix in the coming days, and has success.
Candelario is taking the spot of reliever Dylan Floro (as expected), who’s been up and down for the Cubs all season long (without much playing time or success: 8.53 ERA through 6.1 IP). With that move, the Cubs roster moves down to a more reasonable (but still slightly high) 8-man bullpen. Let’s see if a little more youth on the roster can help spark things on the field.