This really sucks. Nick Madrigal was called back up from Triple-A on June 9, after he was demoted to the minors in May and he was the hottest hitter on the Chicago Cubs since the start of a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. Unfortunately, Madrigal’s great stretch has been haulted.
The Cubs announced a series of roster moves on Tuesday, as Madrigal was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a strain in his right hamstring. Madrigal felt the pain during Monday’s series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers and was eventually taken out of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Patrick Wisdom, who has been on the injured list since June 17, and has been on a rehab assignment since last week at Triple-A, has been activated to the roster to take over Madrigal’s spot.
The other piece of big news is the promotion of 23-year-old pitching prospect Daniel Palencia, who will go into the bullpen after he transitioned from a starter role to begin the year in Double-A to a reliever in late May with the Iowa Cubs.
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Wisdom was horrible for a long time before his injury stint and when you couple that with losing a hot hitter in Madrigal, fans are already upset. Cubs fans are even more annoyed because to make room for Palencia, Hayden Wesneski has been optioned back to Triple-A.
On the bright side, hopefully this means that Wesneski will go back into the rotation with the Iowa Cubs, gets stretched back out, and if Jameson Taillon continues to struggle, then Wesneski will be ready to take his spot later in July.
As for Wisdom, the Cubs should really only be using him against left-handed pitching and even then he has to prove he’s going to produce to get at-bats over a few other younger players. Either with him or Christopher Morel, the defense at third base is going to decline from where it was with Madrigal. However, Morel has turned it around after his slump and his bat should be in there as much as possible.
Morel, who started his first game this year at third base against the Cleveland Guardians this past weekend, is starting there again on Tuesday.
One more note on the roster moves. Right-handed pitcher Brad Boxberger was moved to the 60-day injured list. The veteran reliever has been out since May 15. The last we heard of Boxberger was back in June, when he went out to Arizona to throw a live bullpen session, but nothing since. Safe to say the Cubs aren’t expecting the 35-year-old back anytime soon.
Thank you for educating me Lynn. Riddle me this, ‘Cubs Call up Hard Throwing Pitching Prospect to Majors ‘ Is this headline also the writers using mockery?
Thank you Jason. But remember the writers are making a Mockery of Sports
Will you stop with the bullshit headlines. Those roster moves are all expected. The bigger news here is Mancini is actually playing first again. Obviously he’s not the only reason, but his clown show at first coincided with Cubs recent horrendous play. I didn’t want David Ross to be the Cubs manager, and every time he makes the lineup, or a ridiculous pitching decision I want him less and less
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