Roster Move: Cubs claim veteran pitcher |
With the official end of the waiver period approaching, you knew there would be plenty of teams trying to make one last move in an effort to have a player for their playoff push. The Cubs previously had Drew Smyly on waivers, but after no one claimed him, he remained with the team and will now be pitching out of their pen the rest of the way.
Although the Cubs may be out of the race right now, they are still alive, and if they can continue this hot stretch, they can make things interesting over the final month. In an effort to remain competitive for the final month, the Cubs continued to make under-the-radar moves that they feel will help this team, and Friday was another one of those moves as they added RHP Shawn Armstrong from the waiver market. Armstrong began the season with the Tampa Rays before coming to St. Louis around the trade deadline and will now be with the Cubs. Given that Julian Merryweather was placed on the IL on Tuesday, the Cubs have been a man down in the pen for the last few days, and Armstrong could be a guy who goes right into the Cubs pen for the stretch run. The 33-year-old right-hander has been in the league for a long time, serving as a primary relief option with an occasional start. Across 291 career games, all but 16 of them have been relief appearances, in which he has gone 11-7 with a 4.13 ERA. He has also logged eight career saves and has shown the ability to pitch in several different situations. After struggling most of his career, Armstrong started to figure things out in 2022 when he appeared in a career-best 50 games. He went 2-3 that season with a 4.38 ERA, but did log 66 strikeouts compared to just 17 walks. Most of his success that season came after he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, and that is when he started to look like a true weapon out of the pen. Across his 39 games with the Rays in 2023, Armstrong made six starts and logged 52 innings of work. He posted a 1-0 record in those innings with a career best 1.38 ERA. He walked 21 and struck out 62, but his .280 opponents batting average was a concern despite his great overall numbrers. Following his success that season, Armstrong was viewed as a reliable relief arm this offseason and one that could be used as a flip candidate at the deadline. The Rays decided to keep him around a little longer, but after going 2-2 with a 5.48 ERA, they felt like his time had come to an end and elected to move him to the St. Louis Cardinals at the deadline. Sometimes, all a player needs to get back on track is a change of scenery, and you could make that case with Armstrong. He appeared in just 11 games with the Cardinals but was very good, with a 2.84 ERA across 12 innings. He walked two and struck out 12 as he continued to show his overpowering stuff, which made him one of the best relievers in the game during the 2023 season. With the Cardinals now falling off and fading in the standings, they chose to make some difficult decisions and one of those decisions was placing Armstrong onto waivers. Expected to have plenty of suitors, the Cubs emerged as a surprised suitor and plucked him off the waiver wire to add to their roster the rest of the way. Hoping another change of scenery does the trick, the long-term outlook for Armstrong isn't clear at this point, but many expect him to come in and take the place of Merryweather to bring this back to full strength. With guys like Tyson Miller, Porter Hodge, and Jorge Lopez as Craig Counsell's most trusted options, Armstrong isn't going to have anything handed to him at this point, and he must prove his worth. Should he land on the MLB roster instead of heading to AAA, look for him to be more of a long-relief or mop-up guy until he starts getting comfortable with his new team. Once that happens, you could look at another seventh-inning arm to lean on down the stretch as the Cubs hope to make one last playoff push.
