Cubs Roster Moves: Trio of Additions Are Official, While Bote, Nance, and Vizcaino Make Room

Today, the Chicago Cubs officially added a trio of free agents: lefty Daniel Norris, lefty Drew Smyly, and utility man Jonathan Villar.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Cubs placed David Bote on the 60-day IL (shoulder surgery), placed Tommy Nance on the COVID injury list, and placed Alexander Vizcaino on the restricted list (per Jordan Bastian). Bote’s move was largely expected, as his shoulder injury will take a while yet to recover from. Nance hitting the COVID IL was not something I could have predicted, so hopefully he’s OK and it’s not something he’s been dealing with long-term. And Vizcaino to the restricted list for undisclosed reasons is, well, who knows. The restricted list is used when a player is away for reasons unrelated to baseball, and it’s impossible to speculate on exactly what’s going on. Vizcaino, 24, was the pitching prospect included in the Anthony Rizzo trade with the Yankees (together with Kevin Alcántara).

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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