With the bullpen continuing to see heavy usage lately, and with Zach Davies maybe in for another short one today (hopefully not!), the Cubs are swapping out arms.
Kyle Ryan, who pitched last night, goes back down to Triple-A, and Keegan Thompson gets the call up.
Thompson, 26, figures to be in the Iowa rotation this year when he’s not needed in brief stints like this. He could be the long man today, perhaps in mop-up duty if it comes to that. He hasn’t seen much game action the last couple years because of injuries and the pandemic, but the Cubs have really liked his development, and he was flashing some surprisingly velocity this spring. I hope we get him into the game, perhaps with the Cubs waaaaay ahead or something. If he pitches, it’ll be his big league debut. More on Thompson shortly.
Meanwhile, no roster move just yet on the catching side:
Willson Contreras feels better and little sore still, but Ross says it's not in his best interest to play tonight. "We'll see" if he plays tomorrow, Ross wants to be smart with it.
P.J. Higgins is here in Cincy on the taxi squad.
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) May 1, 2021
You can’t go with just one available catcher for long, so if Contreras isn’t good to go by tomorrow, your best bet is that Contreras will hit the IL (or someone else will to accommodate the addition of Higgins).
Meanwhile, I wonder if Javy Báez is still the Cubs’ emergency catcher …