NEWSLETTER
Today on 670 The Score, Chicago Cubs GM Carter Hawkins said he expects Seiya Suzuki to be back with the team today. So he could be right there in the lineup today to make his season debut. Here’s hoping.
Together with Suzuki’s return, the Cubs are going to have to make some roster moves today.
First, there’s accommodating Suzuki, himself. It seems most likely at this point that Edwin Rios will be optioned to Triple-A Iowa to make room, given his limited usage and inability to play much on defense. Miles Mastrobuoni is also a possibility, but I suspect the Cubs like his positional versatility off the bench. Nick Madrigal and Luis Torrens are also very slim possibilities, but with Madrigal playing well and Torrens out of minor league options, I doubt those ones.
As for Nelson Velazquez, whom we might have otherwise expected to get bumped, I’m not sure the Cubs will do it. As I wrote this morning, if there is a thought that Cody Bellinger might have to head out for a while on paternity leave, the Cubs might want to keep Velazquez around to take over center field for those games. Otherwise, they don’t have a great option on the roster (either Ian Happ plays out of position or maybe Mastrobuoni does his best as a center fielder).
It actually gets a little more complicated than that, too, because right now the Cubs are playing down a reliever (when Javier Assad was optioned to Iowa to resume starting). Like I said earlier, Jeremiah Estrada is the only reliever on the 40-man roster right now who could come up and be that 8th reliever, so it sounds like that is going to happen:
The Cubs *COULD* swap out a reliever for Estrada (Julian Merryweather? no options remaining, by the way), but that seems much less likely than them simply going back to eight relievers.
In that case, to accommodate Suzuki’s return and Estrada’s arrival, the Cubs will have to make two moves. One could be Rios and the other could be Bellinger, if his girlfriend is about to give birth. The Cubs could also temporarily “option” Velazquez, but keep him with the big league team until Bellinger heads out (I believe you can return from an option before 10 days if you are replacing a player going on the paternity list).
However the Cubs handle it, I would expect both Suzuki and Estrada to join the team tonight in Los Angeles, and a couple position players to be bounced from the roster in the meantime.
Oh, and in his first five appearances at Iowa this year, Estrada sports a 0.00 ERA, a 0.0% BB rate, and a 41.2% K rate. I think he still has some work to do at the big league level, but it’s quite clear that he’s beyond Triple-A hitters at this point.
