NEWSLETTER
It sounds like another one of the edge case roster decisions is coming today, and it would be Carl Edwards Jr. not making the Opening Day bullpen.
Per The Bigs, who are usually spot on when they drop a report, Edwards is opting out of his minor league deal. Which means he wasn’t going to make the team.
Like I said with Dom Smith, who also opted out, it’s still possible Edwards winds up back with the Cubs on a new minor league deal if he doesn’t find a 26/40-man spot out there elsewhere. Given that he’s healthy and was quite good the last two years, though, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. All the best to Edwards if he winds up somewhere else.
Today’s discussion of the bullpen laid out the two challenges to carrying Edwards: (1) the extra 40-man spot the Cubs would have to open up, and (2) the fact that it would leave the bullpen with just one optionable reliever. Neither is great. But if Edwards was really humming and the Cubs wanted to keep him, they’d have to make it work. They must have decided to go another way.
This could open the door to Luke Little making the Opening Day bullpen, as one of two optionable relievers in the group of eight (probably joining Jose Cuas). Unless, of course, the Cubs are pouncing on some other arm that becomes available this weekend in a similar fashion.
