NEWSLETTER
Who am I to argue with a player making an announcement on Twitter?
EXCITED to officially announce that I’ll be heading north to the Windy City in 2018 to help bring another championship to the @Cubs historic franchise!! #FlytheW pic.twitter.com/IbtzYPWltZ
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) December 21, 2017
Dig that excitement and that optimism, both on a team and personal level. Good for him.
Bass, 30, is a former fifth round pick by the Padres back in 2008. He reached the big leagues within three years, but it’s been an up-and-down odyssey since then, including a year-long stint in Japan in 2016, where he posted a nice 3.65 ERA over 103.2 innings as a part-time starter, part-time reliever, but with only so-so peripherals.
Bass has seen time in the big leagues with the Padres, Astros, and Rangers, mostly as a reliever, though he has also started plenty. His results have pretty much always fallen into that “depth” range, where he’s not struggled so much that you’d see him bounced from the sport, but he also hasn’t had enough success to stick in the big leagues.
In other words, a good guy to get on a minor league deal (I presume), bring to Spring Training, and have available at AAA Iowa in case serious needs arise.
For what it’s worth, Bass spent most of his 2017 season at AAA with the Rangers, where posted a great 26.9% K rate and 8.6% BB rate, splitting time between the rotation and the bullpen. I’m not going to tell you that he’s a 30-year-old breakout waiting to happen, but that does happen sometimes (especially after a guy has spent a year in Japan figuring things out).
For now, for the Cubs, he’ll be a depth guy, capable of chipping into the rotation or bullpen if a need arises. In the meantime, he can continue working at AAA, and maybe the Cubs help bring him along a little further. Clearly, based on the fact that he’s been at this for so long after quickly rising to the big leagues, teams must see some serious potential in him.
