The Cubs have optioned Kohl Stewart to Triple-A and recalled Trevor Megill, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter).
Stewart has been a spot starter for the Cubs this season, his first with the club after being signed as a minor league free agent. The 26-year-old former Minnesota Twin has made three starts giving up eight earned runs in 12 2/3 innings with 10 strikeouts to two walks, though he has also hit two batters.
Megill has two scoreless innings under his belt this season, his first action at the big league level. Megill was a seventh round draft choice of the Padres back in 2015.
Is anyone giving Jed credit for his dumpster diving depth? Loving this “next man up” routine while it lasts.
Jed is a good GM. Yes, he got a lot of criticism during the off season regarding his moves. Ultimately he did what he had to do by the directives of the Ricketts family and that was cut costs and payroll.
There’s significantly more heavy lifting ahead. Regardless if he buys, sells or even somewhere in between during the current season and into new off season. It’s a difficult spot for any GM.
@GM. Agreed, Jed has done an amazing job, especially when you consider what he had to deal with. The Ricketts family who are flush with cash, force him to cut payroll significantly. Theo had given Jason Hayward $22M/yr for 8 years – so JHey wasn’t going anywhere. Instead they must trade their most marketable player in Yu Darvish. For pennies on the dollar.
I’m hoping Ricketts just sells the team, as he showed right there where his values are. Ricketts will put the fans and the team second, always, to the almighty dollar. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Why would Ricketts even consider selling the Cubs after investing money in the stadium and the surrounding area? Theo Epstein and not Ricketts is to blame with the Cubs’ current situation with the lack of depth in their farm to losing one or two or even three players this trade deadline or this upcoming off-season.
Ricketts selling the team makes zero sense. This has been the most successful run by any Cub team in modern history. It’s not all about spending the most money every year.
No, it’s not about spending the most money, but it’s not trading a Cy Young candidate because you don’t want to spend the money. Cubs had Darvish signed for 2 more years, at an amount ANY big market club, would be envious of.
Ricketts didn’t trade Darvish, Hoyer did. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hoyer has done an outstanding job. Ricketts sets the budget, Hoyer builds the team around that budget, while also trying to look toward the future. Darvish is 35, and does not have a consistent history. Hoyer’s job is extremely difficult right now, between expiring contracts and trying to re-build the minor league system.
All teams move big name players to cut salary and build the minors. Betts, Lindor, Arenado, Verlander to name a few. The Cubs are in 1st, after winning division last year. That says a lot for a team going through some changes.
There is no way Hoyer trades Darvish without an edict from Ricketts. If they had gotten an equal return, then it would’ve been on Hoyer. But they didn’t get near the return because it was all about dumping that salary. That’s on Ricketts. What’s gonna be embarrassing is if they trade for a front line starter, (which ironically is what they had) and end up paying more in talent than they got for Darvish. Ugh
Excellent posts, Davro. Not used to critical thinking on here, usually it’s the mob mentality w the simplest claims by folks who really don’t know how any of this works. Thank you.
I was just telling my wife last night that it is amazing how entitled Cubs fans became, in a hurry. Best run by a Cubs team in a century, including three consecutive NLCS appearances. But “fire Joe!”, “Theo’s awful!”, and “Ricketts needs to sell!” Anyone who visited Wrigleyville in the 1980s, and visits now, is shocked by how much nicer it is.
The area immediately surrounding the ballpark is spotless.
Not even a gum wrapper can be found on the ground.
But Jed should never have been forced to trade Darvish for money reasons. With Darvish Cubs would have been serious World Series contenders this year.
I’m actually torn in half on that one. But I don’t believe ownership singled out Darvish. But no doubt the Cubs had to cut payroll. Jed tried to move Bryant but the return was less favorable than Darvish. Remember, it’s early to really access what the Cubs received other than Davies who is a reliable mid rotation starter. The other players are very young and would be considered lottery tickets at this point in time. Don’t think we will really know the value for at least 3 to possibly 4 years. Who knows maybe one of these players turn out to be really good.
The Cubs had no choice to get rid of Darvish since that launch of the Marquee Network did not pan out too well for the Cubs last year and this year.
…and selling Darvish was still the right move.
I didn’t think Stewart was terrible yesterday, though his line makes it look a little rougher than it was. He had great feel of the slider at times.
I like Trevor Megill, from what I seen of him in ST. If he could be successful in bullpen, maybe we could move Keegan to starting rotation?
I think that is the eventual plan, but Thompson is probably on an innings limit so they are trying to wait as long as possible. Stewart is somewhat disposable, so they are letting him try to eat innings first and maybe showcase himself to be a trade piece at the end of July (which he’s not helping himself with yesterday’s performance).
Megill is 6’8′ 250