NEWSLETTER
Like I said last night, when a guy immediately and aggressively waves over the athletic trainer when he comes up awkwardly after beating out an infield single, it’s pretty much never that it doesn’t yield an IL stint. A fractured hand? Sure, you can play through that sometimes (apparently), but not a groin strain.
That’s the case for Mike Tauchman, who hits the 10-day Injured List with a strained groin. It’s going to be a while:
Miles Mastrobuoni has been called up to take Tauchman’s spot on the 26-man roster (Lee).
Mastrobuoni is a versatile defender, a decent base-runner, and has always hit at Triple-A (including really raking there lately). But he has never quite held it down as a big-league-caliber 26th man. I suppose this is another shot.
I won’t jump up and down and scream about a relatively minor decision, but I will re-share what I wrote this morning in the Bullets about the move I was anticipating:
“If Mike Tauchman (groin) hits the IL today, I fully expect the Cubs to make the unexciting but understandable move to call up Miles Mastrobuoni in his spot. But man, if Alexander Canario is healthy, it’d be frustrating to see the Cubs not use this clear chance to actually give him a run of starts in the big leagues. I understand that what will actually happen is that we’ll simply see an uptick in starts for Pete Crow-Armstrong when Tauchman would’ve been starting (shuffling guys around), and it’s not like I’ll be loudly angry about seeing more PCA. But two things: (1) we already know PCA is going to be the Cubs’ long-term center fielder, and there are no questions to be answered on him compared to Canario; and (2) we are fairly sure PCA is not going to catch absolute fire right now and be a difference-maker on offense. That’s totally fine right now where he is developmentally. But Canario COULD go supernova for a couple weeks on the big league team. Probably wouldn’t. But could. Why would you not just say eff it at this point and see?”
Maybe Canario isn’t healthy. Maybe there are other totally valid reasons not to give him this shot. It’s disappointing in any case.
On the bright side, without Tauchman’s bat to try to keep in the lineup, Pete Crow-Armstrong should see some more starts (with him in center, Cody Bellinger at first or DH’ing or a corner OF spot, and Michael Busch DH’ing or sitting occasionally as necessary).
