The Cubs have selected the contract of recently acquired righty Jesus Tinoco, tweets Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. He’ll join their big league bullpen to start the season’s second half. Lefty Jordan Wicks, already out more than a month with an oblique strain, is being transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injures list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Wicks will now be out until mid-August at the earliest.
Chicago acquired Tinoco from the Royals in exchange for cash earlier in the week. Presumably, given how quickly he’s been added to the big league roster, the right-hander had some form of opt-out or upward mobility clause in his contract that led to the swap.
Tinoco, 29, pitched 10 innings for the Rangers earlier this season and allowed nine runs before being designated for assignment. He rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, signed with the Royals a few days later, and now will find himself back in the majors with the Cubs less than a month after he became a free agent.
This year’s run with the Rangers obviously didn’t go how he’d hoped, but Tinoco tossed 20 2/3 innings of 2.18 ERA ball for Texas back in 2022 and has pitched to a 4.58 earned run average in 76 2/3 innings across parts of five seasons. He averages better than 96 mph on his fastball but doesn’t miss bats at a particularly high level; he’s fanned 18.1% of his big league opponents against an untenable 13.9% walk rate. He’s had a solid showing in 28 Triple-A innings this season, however, posting a 3.86 ERA with a huge 31.9% strikeout rate against a more manageable (but still higher than average) 9.5% walk rate.
The Cubs’ bullpen has been problematic for much of the 2024 season. They’re a middle-of-the-pack group in terms of ERA but have regularly faltered in high-leverage situations, due in no small part to possessing the third-highest walk rate in the majors, at 10.8%. Tinoco will give them a fresh arm, though his own history of command troubles doesn’t inspire much confidence that he’ll help the group cut down on its walk issues. If the Cubs plan to add to the roster between now and the July 30 trade deadline — they’re currently 3.5 games out of a Wild Card spot in the NL — bullpen help will likely be a focus.
He’ll probably be Jose Cuas 2.0. It’s sad to see the Cubs operate like a small-market team.
It’s sad to see them have a Farm System and not trust it.
I agree but also think that Cubs fans generally overrate most of the team’s prospects. So far, almost all the relief pitchers they’ve brought up from Iowa (Hunter Bigge, Porter Hodge, Luke Little, and Daniel Palencia) have displayed significant to major control/command issues. The Cubs’ “Pitch Lab” is a load of bunk.
Its not the Cubs fans who overrate. We get our info from websites that actually have stats proving a top 5 farm system. Fans dont rate it.
Keep drinking the Ricketts Kool-Aid, my friend.
Until prospects can produce at the Major League level or are traded for established, productive players, farm system rankings don’t mean as much as you think they do. Other than Justin Steele (who was drafted 10 years ago), it’s been quite some time since the Cubs farm system has produced any notable major league players.
But they have produced. They have 3 good outings then one bad one and they’re on the Iowa shuffle the next day while pathetic losers like Wisdom, Mastrobuoni, Tauchman, Madrigal get chance after chance to fail and fail and fail with no repercussions.
Who exactly are you talking about?
Maybe. They had to rush some of those due to injury. Steele had some control issues when he first came up too.
Bigge and Palencia were good when they first came up then they had one bad game and they were back on the Cowpie Express back to Iowa. Hodge looked good at first then then his last outing they left him in against the 3-4-5 hitters and he struggled. He’s probably one more shaky outing from being on the Shuttle. You have to give them more than just a token shot. Anyway I can’t possibly fathom how this stewbum they got from KC is an improvement over anybody I mentioned. They bought him at the Flea Market like a 10 dollar Mr. Coffee.
It’s pretty common practice nowadays for teams to shuttle relief pitchers with options back and forth between their MLB and AAA clubs so they have more fresh arms for the bullpen. This even happens when pitchers are doing well at the MLB level.
In Bigge’s first two appearances this season (granted, he has only three total), his ERA jumped from 0.00 to 6.75. His BB9 went from 0.0 to 13.5. (His appearance against the Cardinals on July 12 was brutal to watch.) After Palencia’s first three appearances this season, his ERA was 6.00 and his BB9 was 10.5. He’s appeared in 34 games so far in his MLB career, so he’s had more than a token shot. Neither of these players were good when they first came up this season.
Overall, Hodge has been decent up to this point, but his career BB9 in the minors is 4.8. That does not bode well for success in the majors. If he can’t consistently get middle-of-the-order hitters out, he’ll be a career mop-up man at best. He has appeared in 14 games so far this season. Again, more than a token shot.
I do, however, agree with you 100% that Tinoco isn’t an upgrade over any of these guys.
Sure, but Steele has shown steady improvement in that department since 2021. His BB9 last season and this season (so far) is 1.9. Plus, he gave up only 14 home runs last season and only 8 so far this season. If other pitchers the Cubs have developed could show similar improvements, I’d be more optimistic about their farm system in general.
Think they have be given consistent opportunities to do so. They just get sent down. Who knows. Some of the best pitchers sucked at first and some of the worst started out great.
All through the system these guys have been asked to throw 2 innings every 2 or 3 days. If you don’t believe me watch a Cubs Minor League game. The starter throws 5 max if that. Then 2 pitchers follow at 2 innings each. That’s the way they do it. Now these guys come up here and pitch once a week sometimes. If anything they’re UNDER USED.. I get that it’s good to have guys to shuttle back and forth when that odd stretch happens when everybody is throwing too much. That’s fine. I don’t think that applies here.. Not throwing enough. Yeah. So the whole staff has been sitting for 5 days, So what was the need to bring in a new arm? Is everybody tired? And why exactly is Hendricks starting the 2nd game off the break and not Tallion? This team is seriously run by a confusing bunch of non conformists. I’m confused.
The fact of the matter is that none of the Cubs pitchers in AAA nor any of their vaunted prospects in the lower levels of the minor leagues are apparently able to provide the team with quality MLB innings right now. Jed and Carter seem to be too in love with their prospects to trade them for anything useful. On top of that, the billionaire Ricketts refuse to go over the luxury tax because they’d rather throw their money at Project 2025. That leaves the Cubs with basically no options for improving the quality of their pitching this season.
In other words, baseball can be flukey sometimes. Thank you for that insight.
So maybe the Cubs aren’t doing this development thing correctly? When has that ever happened in this team’s history?
They have options. they’re just picking the wrong ones as usual. The rest of this season should be about promotion and development and figuring out what to do next year while attempting to get better this year. BJ Murray. Switch hitter plays 4 positions, Sounds like a better option than Wisdom right? Darius Hill- Led all of AAA in hits basically for the last 2 years-LH bat. Sounds better than Tauchman right? Triantos dominating at AA and should be at AAA right now deserves a shot over Mastrobuoni right? Nope. There are 5 guys who need MLB reps as relief pitchers. Starters are fine. This needs to be done now, Not chasing rainbows in the 2nd half. Ah what’s the use?
You’re right about the Cubs needing to use the rest of this season for development and promotion. But the Ricketts want to convince all the gullible fans that the team can still contend for that last Wild Card spot and then get sent home after being swept in the first round of the playoffs. So, they won’t do what you’re suggesting.
Define “small-market budget”.
I wrote “small-market team,” not “small-market budget.” The Cubs should be spending money in a similar fashion to other large-market teams such as the Dodgers and Yankees. Ownership can afford to do that, but they aren’t. I will never understand why such a large number of Cubs fans are so protective of the Ricketts’ money, especially when a Cubs ticket is one of the most expensive in the game.
Anyway, here’s my definition: Acquiring someone like Tinoco and immediately bringing him up to the majors is a total small-budget move. A large-budget move would be paying money to have a good bullpen and then getting a guy like Tinoco and, if possible, stashing him in AAA as a depth piece.
small-budget = small-market budget
large-budget = large-market budget
Here’s hoping Jesus gets some Saves. Can I get an Amen?!?!
I’m an atheist, but sure.
Saves? LMAO. If this guy sees a 9th inning Hoyer should step down immediately. Saves. Give me a break. If he sees a game when they’re not up or down 5 runs I’ll gag.
I think he was making a joke, Uncle Mike.
‘Attempting’ to make a joke probably best describes this situation, but thank you nonetheless.
Hey, it made me laugh, so I appreciate that.
Got me laughing.
And this is better than Bigge, Arias, Palencia How exactly? 9 runs in 10 innings, Sounds about right. It could have been worse I suppose. Could have been 10 runs in 10 innings.
Jed is dumpster diving for bullpen arms, really wish he would address the team’s shortcomings this offseason instead of just dancing around the issues. I’ve given up on them making the playoffs this season, so pardon my pessimism…
Our bullpen is committed to leading the league in walks.
I’ve never seen such a 180 degree philosophy between the rotation and bullpen. I wonder why one is really good and the other is epically bad.
We can agree on that. The biggest problem is walks. The biggest problem is that stupid banana slider they insist on teaching and making every pitcher they bring up through their system throw.. Instead of teaching them a change up or a cutter, Which is much more likely to draw a swing from a Major League hitter they teach the sweeper which nobody but Javier Baez consistently swings at. Good Major League hitters just watch it fly by and wait for the fastball on 3-0. Even a splitter would be an improvement. I don’t really understand who fell in love with that pitch or when but it’s pretty much a waste of time.
It’s like a new toy. The sweeper is a fine pitch to throw on occasion but this is where analytics fail, they want guys throwing it because the analytics say it has such a high swing and miss percentage, however, guys are not throwing it for strikes and hitters are spitting on it because it typically is breaking out of the zone for a ball.
Our bullpen is overly reliant on “stuff” and trying to throw as hard as humanly possible vs throwing strikes. I’ve said it a thousand times, just throw strikes. Hitters have seen the same pitcher with the same stuff, same break all day, when the reliever comes in the hitters timing is going to be off and the break will be different. You’re basically going to be given two strikes off the jump or you’re going to get weak contact if you can just hit the zone.
Jed Hoyer continues to deflect Blane off himself by saying that everyone knows the talent is good, they’re just underperforming. And while yes, it’s true that they’ve underperformed, he is overstating the amount of talent while ignoring one obvious fact. If he had assembled a bullpen with a viable closer and solid high leverage pitchers rather than bargain basement fillers, the Cubs would be in very good shape right now. They lack stars and even though Ricketts should easily agree to go over the luxury tax line given that they print money, it sure seems like Hpyer did t get much for the 200M+ he has spent. Fact is, the Cubs have blown 17 save opportunities and are 5 games below break-even. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out where the fault lies. But by refusing to blame the talent, he takes the onus off himself. That’s quite the leader, isn’t it? Meanwhile, everybody has injuries, so I don’t want to hear that excuse. I guess it wasn’t all the fault of Grandpa Rossy, was it? That 40M spent on Counsell was more dollars unwisely spent. Hoyer has to go
Is Blane one of those future Cubs superstars I haven’t heard about yet?
Poison Ivy’s sidekick.
On the bright side, at least Mike Tauchman is back. On the flip side, it’s kind of sad and pathetic that the depth (or lack thereof) on the roster has us welcoming the return of a journeyman fourth outfielder…
A thousand times this.
Tauchman should be traded immediately.
The real story here is that it’s not Merryweather. All indications up to this point was that he was progressing for these two very important series right after the break.
Again, like with Tauchman, the fact that we are clamoring for guys like Merryweather tells you all you need to know about the lack of talent on this roster.
Really wasn’t clamoring for Merryweather, just insinuating when your start of the season #2 isn’t being recalled and option #25 is, it’s probably an indication that he’s still not healthy nor ready to come back.
TV broadcast said that Merryweather is doing a 30 pitch rehab at AAA tonight, and is expected to be activated for the road trip.
Decent chance that his arm will become detached from his body on pitch #2.
Your positivity is unmatched here.
Ain’t it, tho? Remember: there’s a fine line between being positive and being delusional.
Would you rather I just say what the similarly-named Jack Brickhouse would say all the time?
“Whee!”
Not to change the subject, but when I was a little kid, I got to meet Brickhouse at Wrigley. Our seats were near the press-box way up on the left-field side of the park, and I was wandering around like kids do. He came busting out of the WGN TV box, yelling at some flunky about the beer that he just got, and that it wasn’t cold enough. I knew who he was and of course said “Hi Mr. Brickhouse”. He looked at me and told me to get the hell out of there or he’d call security. I still laugh about that to this day. Of course, being a Cubs fan, I don’t have a lot of fun stuff to laugh about so I’ve learned to take solace in what memories I can get. Bourbon helps of course.
Whee!
If I’m wrong and Merryweather makes it back to the Cubs, we’ll get to hear Boog tell us the story of how he got his “Jerry” nickname for the umpteen-millionth time.
It beats Brickhouse telling us that Scot Thompson was going to be a star.
Boog or Jack. Pick your poison. I miss Len Kasper.
When I was a kid I thought Jack Brickhouse was great. Then I started watching the game of the week with Joe Gargiola and Tony Kubek and Vin Scully and I found out just how lame he really was.
Whee!
Thanks Brick!
The fact that the Cubs consider someone like Julian Merryweather an important bullpen piece perfectly exemplifies the problem with this franchise right now. On a similar note, see Lloyd Emerson’s astute comment about Mike Tauchman above.
Doug, I swear I didn’t read this until after I posted my reply to @mike127. Agree 100%.
Great minds think alike.
I know everyone is talking like Merryweather is Trevor Hoffman. He’s been gone since April and hasn’t exactly torn it up at Iowa. He’s been good here but he’s still just a piece. A useful piece. Actually Miller and Lopez have looked pretty good here and deserve more of a shot. The closer thing has to be addressed in a teams Off Season. Plain and simple and it’s not a position you go cheap on. AND you better have a Plan B. Trying to get one at the deadline gets real expensive, another Cubs myth destroyed that you can build a top bullpen on the cheap. That the sweeper is a must have pitch. That you can draft a SS and play him anywhere. That’s why we have 11 SS’s in the top 30 prospects and ZERO 3B until just now. Tallion came here and was excellent then they made him throw that stupid sweeper. he was terrible, Walked tons of batters. said screw that and went back to throwing his curve ball and now is dominating ever since. I can think of no better example why that pitch sucks. If Hendricks would teach his change up to every P in the system, It would be his greatest contribution to the Chicago Cubs since the WS.
I don’t think Merryweather’s changeup is as good as Hoffman’s was.
Only one Cub in the whole organization throws a change up and that’s Hendricks. Unfortunately it’s his fastball too.
Maybe he can do what Pascual Perez did and learn to throw a changeup on his changeup.
I’m still waiting on your FIST astute comment Doug. I’m sure you’ll Keep trying though.
How often do you get FISTED?
Because why bring up a home grown arm with a future (Bigge, Roberts, Scalzo) when you can dig out someone else’s trash.
Frank- One of life’s great mysteries. Like the Loch Ness Monster, Area 51 and why the people of Tokyo don’t have a better plan when Godzilla show’s up. This is EXACTLY the time when young arms should be getting Major League play to see what they need to do to improve. Although to me it’s just trusting their stuff for strikes. It’s why Hoyer fails as a GM. And why he needs to give up the position. Let him oversee, Not make day to day decisions. He’s not good at it. No vision.
Uncle–please—you continually throw out your knowledge and bash “why Hoyer fails as a GM.” You have all this great insight and knowledge and have no idea what Jed even does. You’ve said this repeatedly.
As the GM of the Cubs—he won a World Series.
He is NOT the GM. Hasn’t been since 2020.
Maybe he should go back to being GM.
So YOU are the one guy who knows what Hawkins does? So why is Jed the one talking to the press and telling everybody what it is they’re doing. I’ll wait.
Nothing to do with Carter Hawkins—-you said Hoyer fails as a GM. Don’t deflect the fact. Hoyer is not the GM. If you’re going to bash a guy (and probably very justified) know why you are bashing him.
I just sit in my seats at Wrigley or at home and root for whoever is out on the field. When it comes down to it, I really have no say as to who plays and doesn’t.
And to answer your question—Jed talks to the the press and tells everybody because he’s the President of Operations—sort of, kind of like what Theo was when he was here. That’s how it works.
Most teams GM’s make the day to day decisions and do everything from talking to the press and telling them about day to day decisions and in the off season make trades and negotiate salaries. As far as I can tell Hawkins does none of that and is a GM INO. He has no direct responsibilities that he owns up to. Have you ever seen one of his interviews? Pure pablum. So you’re completely wrong. This Hoyers show, His team and if they win he’ll take all of the credit and none of the blame if it fails.
Uncle–slow down and read what you write and what I say—I am not wrong at all—I am 100% correct and you are wrong.
First of all, this has nothing to do with Carter Hawkins and I have and I am sure you are the same in having NO idea what Carter Hawkins does on a day to day basis.
You say “most teams GMs make day to day decisions and talk to the press”—I cannot refute that because I do not know nor to I care about other team’s organizational structures. However, I do know that the Cubs, for at least the last 13 years, do NOT have that structure and the GM does NOT do the day to day talking to the press—the president of operations does.
You started this by saying that Jed “fails as a GM”.
Fact remains when he was the GM of the Cubs he won a World Series.
If you want to argue, and I will back you, that he has fallen short of good results as president, I’m right here with you buddy.
You make about 40 entries a day and I’m sure you believe that since it’s the internet everyone is going to believe you are spewing the truth.
Unless you are actually pulling a weekly check from the Cubs I sincerely doubt you have any clue what Hawkins’ daily responsibilities “actually are” and really have little basis to say he have “no direct responsibilities”.
You know that I am about 95% in accord with your thoughts and feelings about the team, direction,,decsiions, etc….but please—when you bash—bash correctly—please.
I’ve never seen such hostile reactions to a low risk high reward move. This comment section is something else
That’s Cubs fans for you.
It really is.
You have a great screen name.
@tozer – – you have to realize the mob boss dad moron here, is not a Cub fan. He just spews his ignorance to get people like uncle all wound up. And then uncle says the same stuff, over and over and . . . kind of like a t rump rally.
Truth hurts and is something Cub fans hate hearing. And the insinuation is a complete failure, Because the other is just full of lie after lie. But most Cub fans are sheep like his are. Just choose not to be one of them.
Ah yes, name-calling. Always the sign of a winning argument. I’ve consciously been a Cubs (not “Cub” since that isn’t the team’s name) fan since 1977. I went to my first game at Wrigley Field in 1979 and remember seeing Dave Kingman hit one of his signature, mammoth home runs in a losing cause.. When possible, my views are supported by statistics and other types of data, not ignorance. I don’t seek to get anybody “wound up.” But if I feel that someone is just plain wrong about something, I will call out that person. I freely admit that I am a Cubs fan who is demanding and not easily satisfied. I will not apologize for that. We’ve all seen what happens when ownership actually tries to assemble the best team in baseball. The results of 2016 speak for themselves. The Ricketts stopped taking that approach in about 2018 or so. I will continue to express my displeasure until they change course.
I think you and I agree that whoever you decide is running this clown show and I still say it’s all Hoyer, That’s it’s flawed at best. Whoever decided that running out the same team that failed last year and paying twice as much money as was needed to a manager is an idiot. Whoever you decide that is, Let me know. I’d love to start a poll but I can’t. Maybe in the next chat I’ll suggest it.
While we’re not always on the same page, I think we’re usually in the same book. We know how to agree to disagree and not let our fee-fees get hurt like so many of the other seemingly fragile commenters on here. Some Presidents of Baseball Ops and GMs know how to run a team with payroll restrictions (e.g. the Guardians, Rays, and, I hate to say it, Brewers). Jed clearly doesn’t, even with more money to spend than those three teams. If the Ricketts’ M.O. is going to be overpaying for players like Dansby Swanson and not paying enough for players like Shohei Ohtani, they need to get better front-office people. I actually don’t have a problem with Craig Counsell and what they’re paying him. I do have a problem with thinking that he would automatically be worth an extra 10 wins if they didn’t also add a commensurate amount of talent on the player roster.
The manager doesn’t count against the Tax so they can pay whoever they want whatever they want, It’s not like they don’t have the money. But to do that and not give him the pieces to succeed is pretty lame. Manager doesn’t matter to me and Counsell is actually a pretty good manager usually but he doesn’t have his usual Closer piece and no bench as I just watch Mastrobuoni ground out with the bases loaded in the 8th inning because there’s no pinch hitter. But he’ll be out there the rest of the year no matter what so why am I even bringing it up?
Yep.
Baseball needs the Automatic Ball-Strike system soon. Like next year soon.These guys just get worse and worse.
Yep again. I’m so sick of the “human element” interfering with plays being called correctly.
In a move to salvage the 2024 season,
The Cubs select the contract of…………….
JESUS !!
Jesus 2 scoreless!. You know what Doobie Brothers song I’m thinking of? Cmon sing it:
Jesus is just alright with me
Jesus is just alright oh yeah
Jesus is taking us to the playoffs
Jesus is just alright oh yeah.
Its gonna happen.
Again.
Pointless. Should have kept Biggie up.
Jed is the lead clown pushing the clown act on the fan base.
Roberts is another one. Success at Iowa and was flawless as a Cub. Demoted.
Pathetic and a lack of respect to players that have been productive by picking up other teams trash and paying them instead.