Ah, this actually makes some sense, even if Matt Duffy was eligible to come off the 60-day IL today.
It’s another arm tonight:
Cubs moves:
Sergio Alcántara optioned to Iowa. RHP Trevor Megill recalled. The Matt Duffy IL activation is on hold. Cubs wanted an additional arm for the bullpen tonight.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) July 22, 2021
With the quick turnaround for tomorrow’s early game, and with Ryan Tepera and Craig Kimbrel, at a minimum, down tonight, I’m fine with the extra arm. Interestingly, if the Cubs wanted to stick with an extra arm tomorrow, too, they could activate Duffy and DFA Eric Sogard, which would take his seven-day DFA window exactly to the Trade Deadline (either you could move him for salary relief during that window or not, and then you probably want to move on anyway). That is to say, waiting one more day on Duffy, who is very unlikely to become a trade piece (or save the season!), doesn’t matter too much.
Sergio Alcantara figures to be back up at some point in the second half, but he was going to get squeezed out by the returns of Duffy and David Bote soon anyway. Get him some starts at Triple-A Iowa for now, please and thanks.
Also, is this a tea leaf on Kris Bryant’s availability? Otherwise the Cubs are now two positional guys down.