On Tuesday afternoon, the Cubs announced a quartet of roster moves, sending an infielder and a starting pitcher to the injured list while replacing them with … a familiar infielder and starting pitcher.
Cubs moves today…
• UTIL Eric Sogard to 10-day IL with left thumb contusion
• INF Sergio Alcántara recalled from AAA Iowa
• RHP Kohl Stewart to 10-day IL with right elbow inflammation
• RHP Trevor Williams activated from 10-day IL— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) July 6, 2021
You’re never happy to see players hit the injured list (and indeed, right elbow inflammation for Kohl Stewart is an especially bad sign); HOWEVER, I am very happy to see Trevor Williams back with the Cubs.
The 29-year-old righty had just started to look a little better on the mound (at least, against the Cubs weaker opponents) in May, when he had an emergency appendectomy that has kept him out since the last May 26. His last start against the Pirates was his best of the year: 6.0 IP, 3H, 1ER, 0BB, 7Ks. Williams also made two Triple-A rehab starts, allowing no runs on just 2 hits and one walk in 7.0 innings. His next start lines up for Thursday, July 7th, which is currently set to be an Alec Mills outing, which would certainly make things easy enough. With that said, Arrieta has a very tenuous hold on a roster spot, himself. If tonight’s start doesn’t go well enough, I wouldn’t be shocked if Mills stays in the rotation and Williams takes over from there.
Even still, you might expect Williams to stay on schedule and take Mills next start this Thursday if only to get as many possible outings before the Trade Deadline.
It’s also nice to see Sergio Alcantara back so soon after his demotion, even if it was at the expense of another position player injury for the Cubs (a left thumb contusion for Eric Sogard doesn’t sound particular scary, though).
Unfortunately, Alcantara hasn’t quite taken the second base job and ran with it as we might’ve hoped, but he still has a lot of upside and youth to go around. He’s starting at second base tonight.