Cubs News: Miles Mastrobuoni designated for assignment for new bullpen addition

Miles Mastrobuoni's tenure with the Chicago Cubs has seemingly come to an end after the team traded for reliever Matt Festa on Thursday.

Mastrobuoni was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Festa, who was acquired from the Texas Rangers in exchange for cash considerations. The utilityman had a tumultuous stint in Chicago due to his abysmal production at the plate. Mastrobuoni owns a career .542 OPS in 272 plate appearances across three years with Chicago and Tampa Bay.

He provided adequate backup defense around the diamond and quality speed as a pinch runner, but he had little else to bring to the table. The writing was on the wall after Mastrobuoni was sent down to Triple-A in September, completing his 2024 campaign with an incredibly low wRC+ of 36 (league average is 100).

CHGO's Corey Freedman pointed out on X that Mastrobuoni was one of five Cubs hitters last year to post a negative WAR, and all of whom have been removed from the roster this offseason.

Jettisoning Mastrobuoni makes the final roster picture a bit clearer, and signals that president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer is looking for more production from his backups. Recently acquired utilityman Vidal Bruján looks even more destined for one of the team's bench spots to start the season. But more work will be needed. Top prospect Matt Shaw will compete for the starting third base job this spring but he is not even on the 40-man roster yet (which is currently full).

Who is newly-acquired Cubs reliever Matt Festa?

Festa is heading into his age 32 season with minimal Major League success. 2022 was by far his most productive season, where he appeared in 53 games and posted a 4.17 ERA out of Seattle's bullpen. A quick glance at his Baseball Savant page suggests he can post plus strikeout numbers when he's at his best, and induce a lot of soft contact even when he's at his worst. Festa mainly throws a four-seam fastball, slider and cutter.

It's not a game-changing move and it seems unlikely that Festa will make the Opening Day roster. But he is the quintessential low-risk, high-reward reliever that the Cubs have routinely targeted in recent years with varying levels of success. Julian Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr. and Adrian Sampson are some of the prominent examples of this bargain-bin style of acquiring pitchers working out for the Cubs. Perhaps the hiring of pitching guru Tyler Zombro can further boost the team's chances of hitting on guys like Festa.

The moves came on the same day the team avoided arbitration with ace Justin Steele ($6.55 million) and reliever Nate Pearson ($1.35 million).