Chicago Cubs' Bryant, Duensing headed for rehab assignments
Third baseman Kris Bryant and left-handed reliever Brian Duensing left Chicago on Sunday for the Cubs' Class AA Tennessee affiliate, where each will begin an injury rehab assignment.
Duensing hs been on the disabled list effective July 1 with left-shoulder fatigue.
Bryant took more early hitting Sunday at Wrigley Field as he continues his comeback from left-shoulder inflammation.
"I feel good," said Bryant, who has been on the DL effective June 23. "Just took it nice and slow and made sure it's something I manage. Hopefully it doesn't come back again."
Bryant added a lot of that "depends on my stubbornness and if I go up there and take the right amount of swings each day or take too many. It's just managing workload. If I do that, I should be good."
He will begin playing games at Tennessee Monday. The Cubs go to San Francisco for a three-game series beginning Monday night, and they are not ruling out Bryant rejoining them for that part of that series.
Bryant said he couldn't remember the last time he had been away from baseball for so long.
"Maybe like when my mom grounded me as a kid," he said. "Literally, I can't remember a time where I've been forced away from the baseball. I've been really fortunate my whole life up until this point, my whole life playing baseball. But you have bumps along the way, and this is certainly one of them. You learn a lot along the way and I've learned that I need to take a little better care of my body. Thankfully I said something and really go this under control."
More bullpen moves:
The Cubs placed right-handed reliever Anthony Bass on the 10-day because of illness. They selected the contract of right-handed reliever James Norwood from Class AAA Iowa.
The 24-year-old Norwood joins the Cubs after going 1-2 with 2 saves and a 2.13 ERA in 29 relief appearances between Tennessee and Iowa this season.
He was a seventh-round pick of the Cubs in 2014 out of St. Louis University.
Bass has done a good job for the Cubs since coming up from Iowa last month. He is 0-0 with an 0.63 ERA and a WHIP of 1.17 in 14 games.
Top pick flashes power:
Shortstop Nico Hoerner, the Cubs' first-round draft pick this year, hit his first pro home run Saturday for class A Eugene in a 5-1 loss against Hillsboro. Hoerner entered Sunday 7-for-16 at Eugene.