Cubs add Jeremy Jeffress

The Chicago Cubs have added free agent reliever Jeremy Jeffress on a one year $850,000 deal according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal will also allow Jeffress to earn up to $200,000 in incentives based on games pitched.

Jeffress, 32,was a disappointment for the Brewers in 2019 results wise as he posted a 5.02 ERA in 48 appearances while dealing with injury including a hip problem right before his release in early September. There are some indicators to suggest a bounce back in 2020. His 3.96 FIP is far better than his ERA and 63.8 left on base percentage is well below his career average.

It's fair to wonder what went from for Jeffress in 2019, he suffered from a significant 1.4 MPH drop on his sinker velocity which allowed hitters to hit .291 against the pitch compared to a .215 mark from the year before. His split-fingered fastball was also disastrous for him as hitters hit .400 off the pitch in a much smaller sample size than the year before where hitters hit .188 off the pitch.

Overall for his career he has posted a 3.16 ERA in 392 career games including one start. He has pitched 401 total innings striking out 370 while walking 163. He has pitched for four big league teams, but has had the most success for the Brewers posting a 2.66 ERA in 301 appearances split across seven seasons.

It is extremely unlikely that Jeffress will return to his 2018 form where he was all All-Star posting an incredible 1.29 ERA in 76.2 innings for the Brewers bullpen. But he has shown the ability to be a solid big league reliever and if he can get his velocity back up and some of the bad luck disappears then he can definitely be an asset to the Cubs bullpen in 2020..

Cubs trade Tony Kemp to the A's

According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle the Oakland A's have acquired 2B/OF Tony Kemp for a currently unknown return.

The Cubs acquired Kemp at the 2019 trade deadline and he struggled with the Cubs hitting just .183/.258/.305 in 44 games and 93 plate appearances. He struck out 18 times to seven walks and he had just six extra base hits while going 0-1 on stolen base attempts. Although he graded fairly well in the outfield, he just didn't do enough with the bat.

It was likely going to be difficult for Kemp to find playing time for the Cubs in 2020. David Bote is currently projected to start at second base along with Nico Hoerner and Robel Garcia lurking as options as well. The Cubs also have a significant amount of outfield depth and he isn't a good enough hitter to justify displacing anyone on the roster.

Kemp had a few nice moments for the Cubs, including a big go ahead pinch hit home run against the Cardinals when they still had a chance, but ultimately his short tenure with the Cubs will go down as a disappointment.

Update:

The Cubs will receive 23-year old Alfonso Rivas who was the A's fourth round draft choice in 2018. He spent the majority of the year for the A's High-A affiliate in Stockton where he hit .283/.383/.408 in 114 games and 509 plate appearances. He also received a stint in AAA where went 13-32 with a home run in eight games.

He does not hit for a lot of power with just a .121 ISO for his professional career, but he has a good hit tool and with a 6' 0" 188lb frame he could potentially add more power.

In an interview for A's Farm A's special assistant Grady Fuson said: "Like I’ve always said, power is the last thing to come. And so, we’ll just wait and see on that. But very polished, knows the strike zone, swings at strikes, takes balls, good defender. He’s a good-looking player,"

Cubs sign Noel Cuevas

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic the Chicago Cubs have inked outfielder Noel Cuevas to a minor league contract. The deal will pay him $575k if he is at the big league level.

Cuevas went 0-2 in his only big league game this year for the Rockies, but hit a solid .278/.358/.439 in 233 plate appearances for their AAA team in Albuquerque. He missed time due to a quad injury, returned, was not effective, and found himself designated for assignment in September.

The 28-year old appeared in 75 big league games for the Rockies in 2018, but he struggled horrifically posting a .233/.268/.315 line, which was good enough for a wRC+ of 41. He did post an above average contact rate of 81 percent and struck out just 15.7 percent of the time, but a complete inability to drive the ball (.082 ISO and 23 percent hard contact rate) and lack of plate discipline (3.9 percent walk rate and 3.35 pitches per plate appearance) exposed his flaws as a big league player.

Cuevas doesn't exactly excel defensively either, in 285.2 big league outfield innings he has been worth -4 runs defensively, though he did grade much better in right field than he did in left.

This isn't much more of a depth signing. Cuevas does add some much-needed contact skills to the organization, but he doesn't do enough with that contact to justify giving him a serious role with the big league club.

Cubs non-tender Russell, Hultzen

Today was the deadline to tender a contract for arbitration eligible players and the Cubs did that tendering a contract to six of their seven arbitration eligible players. Shortstop Addison Russell was the non-tender, and LHP Danny Hultzen was non-tendered as well despite not being arbitration eligible.

Russell is obviously the big name here and for good reason. It was already a controversial decision to bring him back last year with his domestic violence suspension looming combined with a significant decline in his performance.

Just going by on the field results Russell was not worth a tender. He hit just .237/.308/.391 with nine home runs in 241 plate appearances along with several miscues on the base paths and on the field. He just plain and simple wasn't going to going to be worth the estimated price tag due to the fact that he wasn't going to be guaranteed playing time next with with the emergence of Javier Baez as the everyday shortstop and guys like David Bote and Robel Garcia who can handle second base as well.

Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein said in a statement "We decided to non-tender Addison Russell today simply because the role we expected to play for the 2020 Cubs was inconsistent with how he would have been treated in the salary arbitration process,"

It's hard to bring up Russell without mentioning the terrible domestic violations made by his ex-wife last year. He was suspended 40 games due to the allegations, and it's hard not to believe the allegations played some sort of role in the decision to let him go.

Russell certainly had his moments with the Cubs. He had some huge hits in the 2016 NLCS and World Series, but ultimately his tenure will go down as a disappointment. He hit just .242/.312/.392 in 615 games over five seasons with the team after being ranked as the #2 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus before the 2015 season.

Danny Hultzen was a nice feel good story in an otherwise disappointing Cubs season. The former 2nd overall pick in 2011 by the Seattle Mariners was brought in before 2018 on a minor league deal and bounced back from several injuries and setbacks to make his major league debut in 2019 at the age of 29.

He pitched fairly well in his six appearances pitched three and a third innings allowing four hits and two walks while striking out five along with zero earned runs. The non-tender likely does not end his Cubs tenure however, he was out of options next year and the Cubs may bring him back on a non-guaranteed deal that could allow him to start the season in the minor leagues to ramp himself up for the season.

Cubs claim lefty CD Pelham from the Rangers

The Cubs and Rangers have teamed up again with the Cubs claiming 24-year old lefty CD Pelham off of waivers from the Rangers today. The 40-man roster stands at 38 as of this move.

Pelham had a disastrous season in the minor leagues in 2019 with an 11.97 ERA in 42 appearances split between AA Frisco and AAA Nashville. He walked 40 and struck out 37 while allowing 48 hits and six home runs in 32.1 innings pitched.

He did make his major league debut in 2018 and did not pitch well in 10 appearances allowing six earned runs in seven and two-thirds innings pitched. He allowed four walks and 12 hits to go along with seven strikeouts. 

He did show some flashes of promise, for example this slider to Stephen Piscotty back in 2018 was a very well executed pitch. His slider has the potential to become a good out pitch with some decent bite to it.

He is a hard thrower with a four seam fastball that averaged 96.4 MPH that he threw about 72 percent of the time. The sample size is small, but batters went 10-27 off the pitch with three doubles off the pitch. He struggle to induce swings and misses as batter whiffed just 16.1 percent of the time so despite the velocity it's clearly a pitch that needs some work. 

This stands as just a pure depth move. The Cubs could use some lefty bullpen depth, as they don't have much besides guys like Kyle Ryan and Brad Wieck. Pelham still has an option remaining and can be freely shuffled between the Cubs and the minor leagues.

Cubs sign Alex Wilson

According to Robert Murray of the Athletic the Chicago Cubs are signing right handed reliever to a minor-league contract. Wilson became a free agent Saturday after he was released by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Wilson struggled horrifically in his 13 outings with the Brewers. He allowed 12 runs in 11.1 innings along with 13 strikeouts to nine walks and three home runs. It's been a strange season as his strikeouts are by far the highest rate at his career, but he was also posting career highs in all the bad stats too. His peripherals aren't that bad as he had an xFIP of 5.04, his left on base rate was a career worst 60.6 percent, and his HR/FB of 30 percent was significantly above his career average of 8.6 percent.

The 32-year old veteran is coming off a four year stretch as a very reliable reliever with the Detroit Tigers. In 246 appearances over that stretch he posted a 3.20 ERA with 172 strikeouts to 62 walks in 264.2 innings. His FIP of 3.87 wasn't terrible, but maybe did suggest that he was getting slightly lucky. Despite the success, the Tigers non-tendered him, and the Brewers picked him up on a minor league contract after spending Spring Training with the Indians.

He throws his mid-80s slider over 50 percent of the time and generally had been very effective with it, but this year it was getting hammered for a .296 average against, his sinker, that he throws 28.2 percent of the time, was getting hammered for a .400 average against. The sample size for these isn't that great, but it does show what his issue was, he just plain and simply wasn't fooling batters and getting them to make outs. He doesn't strike out a lot of batters, so he needs to rely on his defense and inducing weak contact which he didn't do this year.

You can never have enough depth, and that's exactly what Wilson is, a quality depth reliever that could potentially be capable of playing a role in a bullpen whether it be when rosters expand or someone gets hurt.

Cubs trade Martin Maldonado to the Astros

Just a few weeks after acquiring catcher Martin Maldonado from the Kansas City Royals, the Cubs have shipped him off to the Houston Astros according to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. Astros beat writer Chandler Rome reports the Cubs are getting back Tony Kemp.

Maldonado appeared in only four games with the Cubs collection zero hits in 13 plate appearances with two walks and five strikeouts. He was never expected to be a huge contributor with the bat, but his glove work is very well respected that he could've definitely been useful for the Cubs.

However, the Cubs already Willson Contreras and Victor Caratini as the primary catching tandem, so they might just not feel it is necessary to carry three catchers, especially with the overall lack of depth and offensive struggles.

Kemp, who was designated for assignment last week, is a solid utility player that can fill in at both the outfield and at second base. He was having an OK season with the Astros hitting .227/.308/.417 with a 29-16 strikeout to walk rate and a career best seven home runs. His numbers could possibly be deflated by a .233 BABIP which is well below his career average of .270. Similar to a lot of players this year he is posting career best power numbers, which definitely will play for the Cubs

This is a solid depth move by the Cubs, Kemp is a serviceable defensive player who can provide much better hitting than Albert Almora and Daniel Descalso. He won't be an elite defender, but he is above average and has two outs above average according to Statcast.

The Cubs do save a bit of money with this deal as Kemp is making just $583,600 this year and won't be arbitration eligible until at least 2021.