NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs today made one of their first big bullpen/40-man roster decisions, adding non-roster invitee Jesse Chavez to the 40-man roster. That means the 38-year-old swingman has made the Opening Day roster, as he was generally expected to do from the time he was signed on a minor league deal.
Given the need for lots of length in the bullpen, and the obvious value of having a guy who can pitch in multiple roles, I’m glad the Cubs managed to snag Chavez late in the offseason. We’ll see now if he had a better big league rate now that he’s made the team. The 40-man roster now stands at 40, so additional moves will require either a player getting DFA’d or traded, or will require someone hitting the 60-day IL.
From the original signing post on Chavez:
If you remember, Chavez was with the Cubs in the 2018 season, and was an absolute stud. Not only were his results fantastic (1.15 ERA, 2.39 FIP over 39.0 innings), but he did it in such a wide variety of roles in the bullpen – sometimes he was a middle reliever, sometimes he got multiple innings, sometimes he was a late-inning one-inning guy, sometimes he was a match-up guy, and sometimes he closed. In his many other stops over recent years, he’s also made quite a few short starts when necessary. (He *really* wanted to come back to the Cubs after that season, too, but it didn’t happen.)
Chavez has been a truly versatile rubber-arm, and outside of his times with the Rangers in their old ballpark (it was just death for him on the home run side, as it was for a lot of pitchers there), he’s been great going on a decade. Even last year, at 37, Chavez posted a 2.14 ERA (2.01 FIP) over 33.2 innings for the championship Braves.
If he’s still doing his thing, this is a guy you just love to have available on the roster. We’ll wait for confirmation, but again, based on his own words, it sounds like this is happening.
UPDATE: He’s getting a minor league deal:
Cubs bring old friend Jesse Chavez back on a minor-league/split deal. Non-roster invitee. 38 year old RHP 2.14 ERA and bunch of Ks in 33.2 IP last year for ATL.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) March 13, 2022
That’s surprising to me, given how good he was last year. But we know that a lot of teams were trying to get guys like Chavez on minor league deals. I figure his big league salary, if he makes the team, is going to be pretty decent (couple million?), and he’ll make the team so long as he looks reasonably solid and healthy.
So freaking good.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 2, 2018
