Chicago Cubs: Which pitchers might we see once rosters expand?

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With a pitching staff that has been impacted by injuries and inconsistency, expect the Chicago Cubs to rely heavily on September call-ups this year.

In September, Major League rosters can expand to a maximum of 40 players. This year the Cubs aren’t likely to add many position players to their active roster. However, the Cubs will certainly bring up a ton of pitchers from Triple-A who have already helped the Cubs at the Major League level this season.

However, there are more players who could be potentially get called up than there are spots on the 40-man roster. There are pitchers coming back from injuries. There are prospects the front office might want to have get a taste at the Major League level. Heck, there is even one pitcher who was on the 40-man roster, isn’t currently on it, but will probably get back on. So some players are going to have to removed from the 40-man roster to make room.

But who do the Cubs call up? Who can help the team the most? Who do they add to the 40 man roster and who falls short in their bid to make the big league club? Which players does Chicago remove from the 40-man roster?

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Chicago Cubs: Much-needed left-hander reinforcements

This offseason, the Cubs signed Drew Smyly to a two-year, $10 million contract. They did this despite knowing full well he would miss at least most of this season coming back from Tommy John surgery. The hope was that his recovery would go well enough that Smyly would be ready to pitch a little bit at the end of this season. Then, he would hopefully be able to compete for a spot in the 2019 rotation.

Smyly pitched for the Rays from 2014 to 2017 until he suffered the injury that prompted Tommy John surgery. So Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey know him well from their time together in Tampa Bay.

The good news is Smyly’s recovery has gone almost exactly as scripted. Right now he would like to reduce the amount of time he needs to recover in between pitching sessions.

Smyly will get the call this September assuming he is healthy enough. He wants to pitch this season. And the Cubs want to see him pitch this season. Then we can begin to get a sense of what we have in him for next year’s pitching staff. But they don’t want to rush him and then have him suffer a setback.

Smyly has been on the 60-day disabled list since he signed with the Cubs. So the front office will need to make room to add him to the 40-man.

Chicago Cubs: Another right-handed option in the pen

If you haven’t been paying close attention, you might have lumped Anthony Bass in with Cory Mazzoni‘s, Luke Farrell‘s and Randy Rosario‘s that the Cubs have been shuttling back and forth between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa this season. But Bass is at least a step above them.

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The pitchers in that group have gotten some good results and have some good traditional statistics (earned run average, wins, etc.). But there are indications in some of their peripheral statistics (hard and soft contact rates, flyball rate, strikeout rate, BABIP, etc.) that indicate that they have been getting at least partially lucky.

When Bass has pitched for the Cubs, he has been getting solid results that are supported by peripherals.For one thing Bass is a great ground ball pitcher – something that bodes well on the North Side.

The Cubs passed Bass through waivers after his most recent injury. That enabled the team to assign him to Iowa and remove him from the 40-man. Any team could have claimed him, but surprisingly no one did. Since Bass is clearly better than at least a few pitchers already on the 40-man roster, the Cubs will waive one of them to add Bass on Sept. 1.

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Chicago Cubs: From the brink to bat-breaking badness

Dillon Maples is the best prospect of the pitchers the Cubs have been shuttling back and forth between Iowa and Chicago this season. He almost quit baseball a couple of years ago. But last year he converted from a starter to a reliever. He picked up some velocity on his fastball. And he focused on just two pitches (fastball and slider).

Maples’ slider is one of the most devastating pitches in the Cubs entire organization. One of the biggest problems with Maples has always been control. If he can leverage his two pitches, he can be a high-leverage relief pitcher. If he can’t, then his future won’t much matter.

It would be great if the Cubs could develop one of their own late inning relief pitchers instead of paying the high prospect price to trade for the Aroldis Chapman, Wade Davis and Justin Wilson arms of the world. Maples is the Cubs best hope for that in the short term. So he’s sure to get called up in September.

Maples is still on the 40-man roster. As a matter of fact he was just up with the big club for one day last week.

Chicago Cubs: Two mid-level guys who are on the brink

Luke Farrell has pitched a lot for the Cubs this season. He’s started two games and appeared in a total of 20 contests. His early results were good when the Cubs weren’t counting on him that much. He also pitched five scoreless extra innings that led to a Cubs win back in June.

But neither one of those two starts were any good. He took the loss in both starts. Farrell gave up a combined nine runs in cumulative six innings. He’s not a starting pitcher. The question is if he is still worth a spot on the 40-man roster September? He might be one of the players the Cubs waive to make room for others.

Another shuttle-bound Iowa reliever

Cory Mazzoni has a 1.04 ERA. So why have the Cubs only used him for 8 2/3 innings? Because he isn’t as good as his 1.04 ERA indicates. Before this season Mazzoni had a 20.77 ERA in 2015 and a 13.50 ERA in 2017. His FIP this season is 3.27. In a perfect world FIP and ERA would be about the same. When FIP significantly is higher than ERA it is an indication that a pitcher is getting better results than he really should.

Still the Cubs might choose to call him back up to the Major Leagues in September. However, it also wouldn’t surprise me if he is waived to make room on the roster.

Chicago Cubs: A World Series champion in Iowa

Do remember when Rob Zastryzny was included on the playoff roster for the series against the Dodgers in 2016? Those Dodgers were ridiculously worse against left-handed pitching than right-handed pitching. Zastryzny had pitched decent in both Double-A and Triple-A that season. And with the Cubs Zastryzny had a 1.13 ERA over 16 innings, including one start. So adding him to the playoff roster for that series made sense.

However, last year was a lost season for Zastryzny. He spent most of year injured or working his way back from being injured. He did eventually pitch 13 innings for he Cubs, but gave up 12 earned runs. This season hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t been good either. The Cubs front office has shown a clear preference for Randy Rosario over Zastryzny when they want to call up an extra left-hander from the minors.

This is Zastryzny’s last option year. So this September might be the last time we see him in a Cubs uniform. However, because of that he also might be a casualty of a 40-man crunch and get waived instead.

The Cubs could always use him for one batter here and one batter there. That’s part of what September baseball has turned into. So Zastryzny being left -handed and already on the 40-man makes it more likely than not that he gets called up in September. But I still wouldn’t bet on it.

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Chicago Cubs: A long reliever in the making?

Duane Underwood Jr. made one successful spot start earlier this season for the Cubs. I’ve been a little surprised that the Cubs didn’t call on him again when they’ve needed other spot starts since then.

It might be that the Cubs want him to hold onto the memory of that one successful experience this offseason without risking exposing him to the possibility of having a negative experience later. That might nicely fit if he also has a total innings limit this season.

However, if that’s not the case, Underwood is not just a pitching prospect. He is a starting pitching prospect. When was the last time the Cubs called up a real one of those in September? Underwood is already on the 40 man roster. So it just depends on the front office’s development plan for him as to if he gets called up or not.

Chicago Cubs: Is this guy a AAAA arm or something more?

Jen-Ho Tseng has been the Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year not once, but twice. One of those instances came last year. Do remember how excited we were for him to make his Major League debut in a start at Wrigley Field late last year? Do you remember how badly it went for him? If you don’t – he allowed five earned runs in six innings. Well that’s how most things have gone for him since.

You might not remember, but Tseng made a second start earlier this season. That one was even worse. Three earned in a mere two innings. At Triple-A, Tseng has a 6.35 ERA. He just doesn’t seem to be the same pitcher he was last year. That’s the reason the Cubs have turned to Farrell, Underwood, Mills and even Chatwood when they have needed spot starts this season instead of Tseng.

However, he is just 23 years old. He is already on the 40-man roster. Perhaps if the Cubs call him up in September and he gets lucky and pitches well out of the bullpen a time or two, that might help him turn things around for next season. Just being in the Major Leagues can have a positive effect on young players. So despite how bad his season has gone, Tseng will get called up this September. He probably won’t pitch much. But he should at least get to work on his bullpen dance moves.

Chicago Cubs: Another successful Theo reclamation project?

Allen Webster was the overall 69th ranked prospect in baseball in 2013 by Baseball Prospectus. His change-up and slider are supposed to be great pitches. However, Webster is no longer considered a prospect. He was drafted in 2008 and now he is 28 years old.

When the Cubs signed him this offseason, they were hoping that he could use those great pitches and the talent that made him such a highly ranked prospect to work his way back to the Major Leagues. Well, he swiftly worked his way through the Cubs minor league system. Now Webster may be a reclamation project that really turns into something.

If the front office believes that is the case, they are going to want to call him up this September. Hopefully Webster can establish himself at the Major League and then give the Cubs something to think about during the upcoming winter.

Having too many good players than your 40-man roster can hold is a good problem to have. However, this roster crunch could block some pitchers that in other years would get called up in September.

The Cubs have a lot of arms that could either be useful during the last month of the season or have interesting potential for the future. Unfortunately, the Cubs aren’t going to be able to bring them all up this September.

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