The Cubs are making some more moves today, changing up the roster in advance of expansion from 26 slots to 28 slots tomorrow. Also, today is the playoff roster deadline: if you want someone to be eligible for your playoff roster, they have to be *in your organization* by today.
That’s why you’re seeing a lot of moves at the margins around baseball, including the Cubs signing veteran Carlos Santana, whom I expect to join the roster tomorrow as the 14th position player. The Cubs will still need to open up a 40-man roster spot for him when the time comes.
Santana won’t be the only move on the positional side, as outfielders Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcantara are being swapped. We discussed this possibility earlier, and Jesse Rogers confirms that it’s happening. If Caissie isn’t going to draw any starts, and isn’t going to be an option off the bench before Willi Castro, Justin Turner, and Santana, then he might as well get back to Triple-A and start every day. It’s the Moises Ballesteros situation all over again.
Kevin Alcantara, by contrast, can at least sub in at all three outfield spots, offering a little more late-inning flexibility than Caissie, plus a little more speed off the bench. Moreover, Alcantara has been playing every day at Iowa, has really started to scorch with the bat, and gives the Cubs a righty bat option in the outfield if/when they want to sit either lefty in Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker, or switch-hitter Ian Happ (who has, in his career, generally been less successful against tough lefties).
That is all to say, if you’re looking at this roster and choosing between Alcantara and Caissie as the best pure bench fit, you might decide it’s Alcantara.
Meanwhile, the Cubs also made a pitching move today, claiming righty Aaron Civale off of waivers from the White Sox, and designating lefty Tom Cosgrove for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
We could debate whether the Cubs actually need Civale right now, given that his very vocal desire to start is what got him traded from the Brewers to the White Sox earlier this year for Andrew Vaughn (cursed trade). Are the Cubs going to use him as a 6th/7th starter and provide extra rest for the other starters? If so, I kinda dig it. If he’s headed to the bullpen, though, I’m not sure I get it. Is it worth the risk of disruption?
As for performance, Civale, 30, is not the guy he was in his younger days with the Guardians, when his path would’ve crossed with Cubs GM Carter Hawkins. His 5.37 ERA with the White Sox this year doesn’t inspire confidence either. But his peripherals were actually quite a bit better than that (his FIP- says he was actually just a touch better than league average), and it seems like he mostly got burned by an EXTREMELY low left on-base rate (60.4%, which is nuts) and a slightly higher-than-career-average BABIP (.290). If he’s a 4.50 ERA guy in true talent, then, you know, that’s not so bad as a guy who gives you an extra start or three to save your other guys.
I’ll be curious to see how the Cubs actually deploy Civale, whether they think there’s a very quick tweak they can employ to coax out some better performance, and whether he sticks around past a single fill-in start in the coming week.
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