NEWSLETTER
Although the big leaguers who were removed from the 40-man roster last night, and many thus hit free agency, yesterday was also the date by which eligible players qualify for minor league free agency if they weren’t added to the 40-man or earlier re-signed to a new deal.
That means an additional 20 Cubs minor leaguers – many of whom you know well – are now free agents:
Jose Albertos, RHP
James Bourque, RHP
Kervin Castro, RHP
Erick Castillo, C
Donnie Dewees, OF
Trent Giambrone, INF
John Hicks, C
Jonathan Holder, RHP
Bryan Hudson, LHP
Dakota Mekkes, RHP
Tyler Payne, C
C. D. Pelham, LHP
Carlos Sepulveda, INF
Wyatt Short, LHP
Jonathan Sierra, OF
Matt Swarmer, RHP
Dauris Valdez, RHP
Harrison Wenson, C
Delvin Zinn, INF
To be sure, some of these guys might yet be retained on new deals once they survey the landscape. But guys like Albertos, Dewees, Hudson, Mekkes, and Swarmer are well known to fans who follow the minor leagues closely, and now they might be gone.
Here’s hoping a number of these guys get good opportunities from here, and you never know who might eventually emerge in the big leagues. The Cubs not only have a roster crunch at the big league level, that applies throughout the system – a less-discussed part of the Rule 5 Draft is the minor league phase, where you can protect only X number of prospects at the Triple-A level, and at the Double-A level, and so on. That can be a factor in how many guys you can re-sign internally before they hit minor league free agency.
