NEWSLETTER
On February 6, the Chicago Cubs signed free agent reliever, and 2016 World Series Champion, Carl Edwards Jr. to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Iowa.
On March 24, Carl Edwards Jr. (he feels like a “say his whole name” kind of guy) opted out of his contract with the Cubs, when it became clear he wasn’t going to make the team out of Spring Training.
On April 4, the Cubs signed Carl Edwards Jr. to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Iowa, where he had mysteriously not appeared in a game since June 12, despite earning a 1.85 ERA over 24.1 IP. Well, it’s not quite so mysterious anymore.
Two days ago, according to the I-Cubs minor league transaction page, the Iowa Cubs released Carl Edwards Jr. (h/t to Cubs Zone for catching it).
I don’t really know why they released him (though it may simply have been that he opted out, and the transaction log lists it like this?). He was never going to save the season, and there were quite a bit of walks (14.6%). But like I said, he had a 1.85 ERA and it’s not like the Cubs bullpen is over-loaded with talent. Plus, yeah, sure, 15 walks in 24.1 IP is too many walks. But that seems to be disproportionately hurt by two days of extreme wildness more than anything else:
4/09: 3 walks in 0.2 IP
5/05: 3 walks in 1.0 IP
His walk rate in the other 18 games was a more reasonable 9.7%. I’m really not going to sweat it, but it’s not immediately obvious why ditch him now. UNLESS, it’s possible the Cubs are doing him a favor, knowing (or even communicating to him) that they aren’t planning on calling him up. So maybe this frees him up to go try to catch on somewhere else.
But at the same time, if you can’t crack this bullpen … I’m not really sure where he will catch on.
