Minor League Signing, Darvish For Cy Young And More Cubs Notes

Yu Darvish is amazing. That's it. Sit there and appreciate his greatness.

The Cubs' ace earned his fifth straight win Sunday against the sizzling White Sox and he was once again dominant on the mound. Darvish struck out 10 and only walked one as he lowered his ERA to 1.70 through 37 innings this season.

We all saw how awesome Darvish can be when he had a historic run in the second half of 2019. That's continued into 2020 and the numbers truly are jaw-dropping.

This year Darvish has 44 strikeouts to only six walks.

Through six starts this season, Darvish has a 1.5 fWAR, second to only Cleveland's Shane Bieber in all of MLB and tops in the National League.

But Yu isn't focusing on any individual awards just yet.

Well, we'll think about it and Darvish is certainly in the Cy Young conversation in the NL right now.

The Cubs finally placed Kris Bryant on the injured list prior to Saturday night's game against the White Sox. The team didn't add a player until Sunday, when speedy outfielder Ian Miller was called up.

The Cubs also announced a few other moves, including moving reliever James Norwood to the 45-day injured list and signing infielder Patrick Wisdom to a minor league deal.

Norwood was originally placed on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation in early August.

We've talked about Miller before and he can actually be useful as a bench player. The Cubs don't have much speed, so Miller immediately becomes their top threat to come in and swipe a bag if needed late in a game.

As for Patrick Wisdom, he's another depth signing. The soon-to-be 29-year-old was once a high draft pick by the Cardinals, but he never really stood out as a prospect until 2018. That's when he first got a shot in the majors with St. Louis. He had a brief time in the majors in 2019 with the Rangers and before signing with the Cubs, Wisdom was with the Mariners, but couldn't make their roster this season.

So yeah, like many of these minor league signings, Wisdom will be used only if there's an emergency.

Sadly, we're not really that far away from an emergency scenario, as Bryant is on the injured list with a banged up wrist and finger. It's been bothering him since Aug. 13, when he dove for a ball in Cleveland and there really isn't a clear timetable for his return.

Via the Chicago Sun-Time.

"I don’t have the [answers to how and when it will feel better] and those are certainly questions I’ve asked the trainers or team doctors, if it’s something that will eventually go away," Bryant said. "They don’t really know either. It’s kind of just your symptoms might pop up here and there and then you just manage it for what it is and if it gets any worse then you can address it. I guess right now, it is kind of a pain symptom management and moving on from there."

We won't get an indication on when Bryant will return until after he heads to the Cubs' training site in South Bend, where he'll face live pitching again. Hopefully the Cubs do get Bryant back by September because they need him healthy to boost the struggling offense.

Over the weekend Cubs infielder/CF Nico Hoerner graduated from prospect status.

The Cubs begin a three-city, 10-game road trip Monday against the Tigers and we still don't know who will start on the mound tomorrow.

Tyler Chatwood, José Quintana, Colin Rea and Adbert Alzolay are all options for Tuesday's game in Detroit.

Chatwood, who went on the injured list because of a back issue, threw a bullpen session Saturday. Meanwhile, Quintana is ready to come back to the club following his freak accident before summer camp. And although Quintana is an option for the rotation the Cubs might be thinking about moving him to the bullpen in his return.

Via Patrick Mooney in The Athletic.

In a sink-or-swim season that is all about adapting, the Cubs have discussed using Quintana out of the bullpen, where they have an obvious need for a left-handed reliever and another pitcher Ross can trust. Quintana, who threw a two-inning simulated game on Friday, is close to being activated after the freak dishwashing accident that required surgery on his left thumb on July 2.
"We’ve definitely had conversations with Q on how we want to build him back into the team," Ross said. "That is an option."

Regardless of who gets the starting nod on Tuesday, you'd hope that Alzolay is called up and permanently stays with the Cubs for the rest of the season.

Alzolay made his 2020 debut last week against the Cardinals and he was fantastic.

Please, give us more Alzolay.