Cubs say releasing Neris is about looking at younger pitchers

The Cubs could still climb back into the wild card race, so releasing the team's closer on Aug. 20 is an interesting decision.

The move became official Tuesday, with the Cubs designating Hector Neris for assignment and calling up recently-acquired right-hander Jack Neely.

The explanation from both manager Craig Counsell and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was basically it's time to take a look at some younger players.

“We have lost experience and that's something we didn't replace,” Counsell said. “Overall, we've been pitching well. We're hoping we can find another player here who can step up and make an impact.”

Neris, 35, led the Cubs with 17 saves, along with 5 blown saves. He's likely to catch on with another team soon. He had an option for next season that kicked in automatically with 60 appearances or 45 games finished, but he wasn't likely to reach either milestone, so it's not like the Cubs made the move to save money.

The bullpen has been rebuilt almost completely this summer. Only two relievers from the Opening Day roster are currently active — Julian Merryweather and Drew Smyly.

“It's something we've talked about a lot internally,” Hoyer said. “Through the course for the year, through waiver claims, small trades, the farm system — we needed to cycle through guys and I think we've been successful with that.”

The 6-foot-8 Neely, 24, was acquired last month from the Yankees in the Mark Leiter Jr. trade. In six appearances in Triple A Iowa, he allowed no earned runs, with 13 strikeouts in 6 ⅔ innings.

Neely was briefly teammates with Luke Little and Cubs minor-leaguer Brandon Birdsell at San Jacinto (Tex.) College. Getting called up Monday was a surprise, since he was already on the team bus headed for Toledo.

“We got about 5 or 10 minutes down the road,” Neely said. “We turned around, were like, 'What's going on?' And they said I needed to get off the bus because I was going to Chicago.”

Both Counsell and Hoyer said there are no plans to release other veterans to look at younger players, but Mike Tauchman, Patrick Wisdom and David Bote are candidates to be released.