The last few ripples of minor league signings are shaking out around baseball, with minor league Spring Training getting underway.
To that end, per Arizona Phil, the Cubs have brought in a couple more players on minor league deals: outfielder/first baseman Jordan Patterson and righty Dario Beltre.
Patterson, 28, was a long-time Rockies prospect who hit well (typically about 30% better than league average) and could play the corner outfield spots as well as first base, but never really got much of a shot at the big league level. Just looks like the opportunities weren’t there, because he reached AAA in 2016 just three years after he was drafted, hit well there, got a successful taste of the big leagues that year, and then ultimately stayed parked at AAA in 2017 and 2018. He was then a minor league free agent, signed by the Reds and traded to the Blue Jays as depth before last season. It was his first down year at AAA, as all his peripherals took sharp turns for the worse, most concerningly, his strikeout rate ballooned to 32.2% while his power dropped.
With the Cubs, Patterson will compete to work into the outfield/first base mix at Iowa. You always add depth guys like that who might surprise to the upside (usually it’s power), so this is fine. I wouldn’t necessarily expect a big league contribution from Patterson this year, but better to have some extra power available just in case. Maybe something was just off last year.
Beltre, 27, is a long-time minor league reliever who came up in the Rangers’ system before spending the last two years in the Angels’ org, topping out at AA. My guess is the Cubs dig that his strikeout rate has been trending up toward 30% while his groundball rate has been trending up toward 60%. The guy must have a heckuva sinker. So, as we’ve seen with the Cubs’ many, many pitching imports: you see a guy who does one thing extremely well, and you see if you can build a more complete pitcher around that thing with the other tweaks.
Odds are good that, if Beltre stays in the org through Spring Training, he’ll open up in the Tennessee Smokies bullpen.