Musical chairs for Cubs’ pitching staff
The Cubs’ moving-pitchers show continued, as expected, Wednesday.
Relievers Matt Guerrier and Pedro Strop joined the team in Oakland after their trades to the Cubs on Tuesday.
To make room, the Cubs optioned lefty Chris Rusin back to Class AAA Iowa and designated reliever Shawn Camp for assignment.
After working in 80 games last season, Camp looked to have nothing in the tank this year. His record was 1-1 with a 7.04 ERA and a WHIP of 1.87.
“Unfortunately, we had to (designate) Camp, which obviously wasn’t my finest day as a manager,” manager Dale Sveum told reporters. “It was tough because Camp did so much for me my first year as manager and God knows where we would’ve been last year without him.
“Those days are tough when a guy’s a great guy and obviously done a lot for you. He did a lot for me when I was managing in Double-A. We go way back.”
The pitching picture will change again in the coming days. The Cubs will need a starter for Sunday’s home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Rusin would be ineligible unless there was an injury to someone on the 25-man roster.
The Cubs also said they won’t start Carlos Villanueva, who has just begun to get “stretched out” to start again. He worked 22⁄3 innings in Tuesday’s 8-7 loss to the Athletics.
Jake Arrieta also won’t start Sunday. He came over with Strop from Baltimore in Tuesday’s trade that sent Scott Feldman to the Orioles. Guerrier was obtained from the Los Angeles Dodgers for former closer Carlos Marmol.
Matt Garza started Wednesday night for the Cubs, and he may be the next Cubs starter to be traded.
International talk”The most interesting aspect of Tuesday#146;s flurry of trades was the Cubs netting $963,000 in international signing-bonus money.This is another example of progressive thinking from the Theo Epstein/Jed Hoyer front office. The Cubs like the current group of international free agents, and they#146;re making sure they have the money to sign some of the better ones.A report surfaced Wednesday that they had signed their top target, 16-year-old outfielder Eloy Jimenez out of the Dominican Republic.The Cubs traded a slot to the Dodgers in the Marmol deal, but they picked up four slots in the trades with Baltimore and Houston.Cubs management has been trying to low-key the acquisition of monies for international signings, with GM Hoyer saying this Tuesday when asked about getting $388,100 in slot money from the Orioles in the trade that sent pitcher Scott Feldman to the Baltimore.Hoyer wanted to talk more about getting Arrieta and Strop.#147;Certainly, it was an important part of the deal,#148; Hoyer said of the international slots. #147;But frankly, it was the last part. We talked really for quite a while about the various players. The focus for us was adding two more power arms that are controllable for a long time.#148;What the Cubs are doing is trying to exploit every advantage possible in the new international-signing system. They had the second-most money to work with after Houston, but to get the players they want, they needed more.The baseball site FanGraphs had an interesting analysis by Dave Cameron.#147;So, yes, the Cubs traded Scott Feldman for Jake Arrieta, but that was likely not the primary motivation for this deal from Chicago#146;s perspective,#148; Cameron wrote.#147;I#146;m sure the Cubs are happy to have both of those arms in their organization, but this was a trade about the long-term future in Chicago, and securing premium international talent in the process.#148;bmiles@dailyherald.com