NEWSLETTER
Free agency opened up around MLB this weekend, and it also opened up around the minor leagues. That means the Cubs will be scouring the market for guys who never quite made it onto a big league roster after about six years in the minor leagues, and/or veterans who are not able to secure big league deals.
It also means that the Cubs have some outgoing free agents that can now explore deals elsewhere. You can see a discussion of the details on how this works from Arizona Phil over at The Cub Reporter, but the now free agent minor league Cubs are:
Jeffrey Baez, OF
Alberto Baldonado, LHP
Wynton Bernard, OF
Corey Black, RHP
Stephen Bruno, INF
Chris Coghlan, OF-1B
Casey Coleman, RHP
Ryan Court, INF
Mike Freeman, INF
Terrance Gore, OF
Trey Martin, OF
Cory Mazzoni, RHP
Jose Paulino, LHP
Bijan Rademacher, OF
Jose Rosario, RHP
Kyle Ryan, LHP
Daury Torrez, RHP
A lot of familiar names in there, even if you don’t follow the prospecting world closely. Baldonado, Bernard, Coghlan, Coleman, Court, Freeman, and Ryan were all minor league signings for the Cubs this past year. Gore, obviously, was a very specialized big league acquisition in August, and now he’ll look for his next minor league deal and the hopes of coming up to the big leagues with some team before September next year. Mazzoni was a waiver addition who saw big league action this past year, but didn’t cement himself as a guy who could stick on the 40-man roster. Rosario was at one time on the 40-man, but did not stick.
The rest were prospects who never quite made the 40-man roster, but now have enough service time to explore options elsewhere if they’d like. The Cubs can, of course, try to retain some of these guys, and it would be nice to see at least Coghlan, Gore, and Ryan stick around.
