As noted earlier, reliever Jason Adam is being optioned down to the alternate site, and you can see the discussion on his issues here.
Taking Adam’s spot in the bullpen is last year’s Rule 5 pick-turned-trade acquisition Trevor Megill, all 6’8″ of him. The guy was looking extremely impressive in Spring Training in terms of the velocity and the curveball, with the Cubs trying to get him to spot that four-seamer down at the knees (he’s so tall and he’s got this exaggerated over-the-top delivery that has to make that thing really hard to square up). He couldn’t quite pull it off consistently yet, but maybe he’s improved at the alternate site? Either way, I’m excited to see him back in action.
Megill was not on the 40-man roster, which means the Cubs had to open up a spot, and did so by putting Rowan Wick (oblique) on the 60-day IL. Which, well, sucks. Wick wasn’t necessarily close to returning, but the 60-day placement means he can’t come back, at the earliest, until later next month. The last update we heard on him was that he was able to throw successful bullpen sessions, but wasn’t recovering afterwards like you’d want to see for a guy to actually be in your bullpen. Obliques, man. They sometimes really suck. Hopefully Wick will be back late in May, and then a staple in the bullpen the rest of the way.
Oh, instant update as I type:
David Ross says Rowan Wick had some soreness after his last few bullpens, so team decided to slow him down and put him on the 60-day IL. #Cubs
— Russell Dorsey (@Russ_Dorsey1) April 26, 2021
This could be an even-longer-than-May situation.
Meanwhile, it is interesting that the Cubs went with a guy not on the 40-man and it wasn’t Pedro Strop. They’ve could’ve added him, or could’ve just called up Justin Steele. This tells me a couple things: (1) the Cubs legit like Trevor Megill, and expect him to be an up-and-down guy this year, so might as well go ahead and put him on the 40-man now; and (2) the Cubs might expect to make another roster move in the coming days, and it could be that Megill simply goes right back down in favor of one of the other guys (including Jonathan Holder, who is probably gonna be ready to debut at some point soonish?).