Cubs Have A New Pitcher In The Bullpen

The Cubs have placed Brandon Morrow on the 60-day DL after he was shutdown on Tuesday. The other big news is that right-handed pitcher Allen Webster has joined the Cubs bullpen.

Webster last pitched in the majors back in 2015, with the Diamondbacks and actually has an interesting connection to Kyle Hendricks. We'll touch on that later. The Cubs signed Webster to a minor-league deal back in March and his journey back to MLB has been pretty great. He used to be a top-100 prospect and was part of the blockbuster trade back in 2012, when he was traded from the Dodgers to the Red Sox that also included Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto. After three different stints in the majors with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks, Webster played in Korea in 2016. In 120.1 innings from 2013-15, Webster made 23 starts and pitched in 28 games, while recording a 6.13 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. This year at three different stops in the minors for the Cubs, the righty pitched 17 innings, posting a 2.65 ERA. And now he's made it back to the show. So, the connection to Hendricks is that before Webster was traded from the Dodgers to the Red Sox, the Cubs and Dodgers almost had a deal involving him that included Ryan Dempster as the big name going to Los Angeles. Here’s what Jon Heyman wrote in 2012 about the trade talks between the Cubs and Dodgers involving Dempster and Webster.

The Cubs offered to send Ryan Dempster to his preferred Dodgers straight up for solid right-handed pitching prospect Allen Webster, but the Dodgers have rejected the offer. The issue seems to be this: The Dodgers don’t appear to love Dempster quite as much as he loves them. According to people briefed on the talks, the Dodgers have thus far offered a couple of lesser prospects, guys who may project as relievers.

The Cubs were interested in Webster and when the Dodgers offered other guys the Cubs moved on. Eventually Dempster was traded to the Rangers and Kyle Hendricks came back in return. That also happened after Dempster vetoed a trade to the Braves. Anyway, a great comeback story for Webster and who knows maybe the Cubs catch lightning in a bottle with him in the final two weeks of the season.