NEWSLETTER
Even as he was being punted quickly from the New York Mets organization following the glove-throwing incident, it wasn’t clear that pitcher Jorge Lopez was done pitching this year. After all, the 31-year-old reliever had a long big league track record with some periods of significant success, and that’s usually all it takes for MLB clubs to take a no-cost chance on a guy.
So, indeed, Jorge Lopez is getting another chance … and it’s coming from the Cubs:
Lopez will have to work his way back to the big leagues, and I would not say it’s a lock that he ever arrives. There will be an adjustment to a new organization, ramping back up, and then probably a period of acclimating to a new reality after a pretty crazy series of events.
I’ll be very interested to see how this goes, again, just given the whole story out of New York (you may remember that it was a blown game, a glove chucked into the stands, a translation issue with some comments after the game, and a very quick dismissal by the Mets). It’d be kind of a fun redemption story in a lot of ways, but I wouldn’t have any expectations. For one thing, Lopez hasn’t ALWAYS been effective in the big leagues. For another, this is just a no-cost flier for the Cubs. If he shows out, great. See what he can do back up in the bigs. If he doesn’t look incredible at Iowa, or if there is any kind of additional friction, then nothing was lost.
