NEWSLETTER
I was literally in the middle of an article asking “What Are the Cubs Going to Do with Matt Mervis,” when this news came across the wire. The Cubs first base picture is fully settled with the left-handed Michael Busch dominating offensively. But we’re not too far removed from Matt Mervis being a thing. And he’s done nothing but tear the cover off the ball this season at Triple-A. So he’s reportedly coming back up!
Let’s set aside the corresponding moves for a second (hopefully it’s not Ian Happ to the IL), and just talk Mervis.
Through 82 plate appearances at Triple-A this season, Mervis is slashing .288/.402/.606 (151 wRC+), with an impressive 14.6% walk rate and a 23.2% strikeout rate. He wasn’t able to make himself stick in the majors last season, but the Cubs would be silly not to give him another opportunity (it was only 100 plate appearances, and he hit the ball hard, after all). With Mike Tauchman already starting most games in the absence of Seiya Suzuki (and with Chris Morel’s defense at third base looking better every day), Matt Mervis should have a very clear path to playing time at DH even if Ian Happ doesn’t hit the injured list. Frankly, I’m pretty excited about the possibility.
We’ll have to dig into this in greater detail later, because there are a couple of moves here.
The other addition for the Cubs today is Hayden Wesneski. Wesneski came up last week, thew 4.0 fantastic innings and was immediately sent back down. But with Kyle Hendricks struggling again yesterday, you have to wonder if an IL stint is coming for The Professor. If that does happen, I don’t know if it’ll be Wesneski or Ben Brown taking his spot in the rotation until Justin Steele comes back (could make the argument for either, really), but we’ll have to wait and see. But that’s my best guess.
So Wesneski and Mervis up. And going down, we don’t know, but among the options/possibilities: IL stints for Ian Happ (for Mervis) or Kyle Hendricks or maybe someone like Colten Brewer goes back down. Stay tuned! As a reminder, the Cubs can carry only 13 pitchers on the active roster.
