Ivy League Cubs

By: Jacob Zanolla

Jed Hoyer had a busy day, making some roster moves before the upcoming series against the Houston Astros.

Mervis has some time in the majors least year, and appeared in 27 games. He only had a .218 average, and a very underwhelming .289 slugging. He played mostly first base, although I assume that changes now that the Cubs have Michael Busch. With Christopher Morel at third base, this probably means Mervis will slot in at DH. So far in AAA this season, Mervis had 151 wRC+ with five home runs and 12 RBI’s. There have been lots of discussions regarding Mervis, and whether it’s best for the Cubs to trade him or give him another try in Chicago. The Cubs have designated Garrett Cooper for assignment, a move that I was not expecting. The positive side of this is that no more injuries have occurred. Cooper had cooled off as of late but was still a solid player on offense. In 12 games, he had one home run with 6 runs batted in, along with a .270 average. His main purpose was to hit against lefties, while Mervis will most likely be the opposite. The upcoming Astros series will have Houston throwing three right handed starting pitchers, hence the timing for Mervis being promoted. Instead of just being in Chicago for a short time, it appears he’ll be here for quite a while. A lot of people are confused about this move, which I understand. I have a suspicion, along with others, that Cooper asked for something like this because he wasn’t getting regular at bats. We will see if he signs somewhere else soon, and there’s a chance he had nothing to do with this. We won’t know for sure until someone reports it, but I could see that being a real possibility.

On the pitching side, Hayden Wesneski is on his way back to Chicago. He was just optioned after the series in Arizona, which I was very disappointed to see given his strong outing. With his option being so recent, he is only able to be promoted again if an injury occurs. Without an injury, he would have to be in Iowa for 15 days before another promotion. Luke Little is also back with the major league club. To correspond for these two promotions, Kyle Hendricks and Drew Smyly have been placed on the Injured List. It hurts to see Kyle go down, but it was inevitable. Whether it is a “phantom” IL stint or a real injury, I’m not sure. Hopefully it’s a real injury and he can come back healthy, but it was clear something was wrong. I wonder if Ben Brown will take the rotation spot, with Wesneski staying in the bullpen. Either way, it’s nice to see Wesneski back up with the major league squad. I wasn’t a fan of him or Little being demoted in the first place, but it looks like they’ll get another chance!

On a side note, this lineup is absolutely perfect. Substitute Suzuki for Tauchman and it wins this division.