We expected a roster move or two in the bullpen today for the Cubs, what with the doubleheader on tap and a good bit of usage the last two days (though thanks to the position players yesterday, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been). Turns out, there’s a TON of movement.
Jesse Chavez is joining the team today, as expected. Also coming up today are Luke Farrell (26th man for the doubleheader) and Dillon Maples. James Norwood has been optioned to AAA Iowa, and Anthony Bass – who gave up a hit and two walks yesterday after coming off the disabled list on Thursday – goes back on the disabled list with a back muscle injury.
That last one sucks, given how good Bass has been when healthy, but it’s also not that uncommon for a guy to get off the DL for something like sickness, and then ramp back up to the big leagues … and (hopefully mildly) jack something else up. For roster management purposes, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have Bass, who has no minor league options, on the DL, but he’s been good enough that it would be nice to just have him healthy and available.
Meanwhile, Maples comes back after some struggles in his earlier call up, but then a resumption of his dominance at AAA. Dude has the stuff of an elite big league reliever, but until and unless he can even remotely command his fastball, his devastating slider will only be so effective.
Farrell, as the 26th man, will be up only for today, and without another roster move, would head back to Iowa tomorrow. You can presume he’ll be the long man today if either of Tyler Chatwood or Mike Montgomery get bounced early.
For much more on new Cubs reliever Jesse Chavez, we dug in on him this morning.