NEWSLETTER
As expected – and teased by Brett in the Bullets earlier today – the Chicago Cubs have made a roster move, sending righty Luke Farrell to Iowa, and calling up righty Cory Mazzoni.
As Brett suggested earlier, it’s not much of a surprise to see Farrell optioned for another arm today, but that’s not solely because of the back-to-back walk-off losses (it doesn’t help, but it’s not like you’re going to demote him for that – he actually pitched fairly well last night). It’s probably a bit about the back-to-back appearances, however, and desire to have another available arm tonight. And to that end – again, also given Farrell’s options and his last-man-in the-pen-status – he made the most sense. He could yet be back for a stretch before the year is up. The fastball-slider combo looked fantastic at times.
In his place, the Cubs are calling up 28-year-old right-hander Cory Mazzoni, who actually first made his Major League debut back in 2015, but has only received 16.2 IP across two seasons since.
Mazzoni, you might recall, was acquired by the Cubs off waivers from the Padres on November 6, 2017, before being lost to the Dodgers on waivers on March 27 of this year, before being re-acquired off waivers from the Dodgers on March 29th and eventually assigned to Triple-A Iowa on April 5.
Since then, he’s been pretty fantastic for the Iowa Cubs, earning a 2.31 ERA and 3.23 FIP, with solid peripherals behind him. Which solid peripherals? How about an absolutely minuscule 1.9% walk rate over 11.2 innings pitched this season. Indeed, he’s walked just *one* of the 52 batters he’s faced, while striking out 12 (23.1%).
There’s no advanced batted ball data to explore, but Mazzoni has allowed a .314 average and a .395 BABIP. So … he’s either been really unlucky or allowing a fair amount of hard contact. As long as he uses this time to throw strikes when needed, though, I think he’ll be fine as a fill-in arm until Eddie Butler (groin) returns, which I’m guessing is the plan.
Mazzoni is already on the 40-man roster, which stands at 39 by my count. So we’re all good there. Welcome, Mr. Mazzoni. Throw strikes.
