Cubs add some speed with Martin trade

It's no secret Cubs manager Joe Maddon wanted a little extra speed on the roster for the September playoff push.

He got it late this past Thursday night when the Cubs obtained outfielder Leonys Martin from the Seattle Mariners in a trade.

Martin joined the Cubs Saturday and was put on the active roster. The 29-year-old left-handed hitter played in 34 games for the Mariners this season. He came up with Texas in 2011. He entered Saturday with 114 career stolen bases and a line of .248/.300/.361 with 38 homers.

"First of all, thank you to the organization for the opportunity to be here," he said. "It's a pleasure to be on board. This is an awesome organization and to play in front of the best fans in the league, so it's a pleasure to be here and wear the Chicago Cubs uniform."

Maddon listed several things to like about Martin.

"Speed," he said. "He can run. He's stolen some bases. Very good outfielder with a very strong arm. He's a pretty good offensive player, too. The thought process there was primarily to get speed off the bench. The ancillary benefit there is the fact that he's very good on defense. And he's got a great arm."

Martin knows reliever Pedro Strop from their days together at Texas and pitcher Mike Montgomery from Seattle. Asked if there's anyone he'd like to meet, he said: "I want to talk a little bit to (pitcher) Jake Arrieta. Difficult to hit."

The right approach:

Joe Maddon says he likes Anthony Rizzo choking up on the bat and wishes more players would do it.

"I'm seeing (Kyle) Schwarber do it now; I'm seeing a lot of guys doing the choke-up thing right now," he said. "Some hitters, it truly is awkward and they just don't feel the same with the bat if they try to do that, and I can see. I would say 75 or 80 percent of all hitters can do something like that.

"All it is, is contact oriented. It's getting your top hand closer to contact. It's better control of the bat. Also when you do that, I think you automatically shorten your movements to the baseball because you've made this concession in a sense, to the pitcher, which is fine."

Maddon also likes the example it sets.

"Having Riz be the poster child with that for us is awesome," he said. "I want to believe that the guys in the minor leagues … I always consider that too, that the minor-leaguers are getting the right message also. So if you're seeing Riz doing that, come on. 'Why can't I do that?'"

A grand gesture:

Catcher Rene Rivera hit his first career grand slam in the second inning of Saturday's 14-12 victory over the Braves. A fan gave Rivera the ball, which had a smudge of yellow paint on it from hitting the left-field foul pole.

"One of the fans wanted to give it to me," he said. "He's 90 years old and used to play baseball back in the days."