Cubs send Adam to South Bend after rough outing
Before Monday's game in Atlanta, the Cubs sent pitcher Jason Adam to the South Bend alternate site, called up right-hander Trevor Megill, and moved pitcher Rowan Wick to the 60-day injured list to make room for Megill on the 40-man roster.
The 6-foot-8 Megill, 27, has never pitched in a major-league game. He made 9 appearances in the spring, posting a 4.32 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 9 innings.
"He threw the ball well in spring and was somebody who was definitely on the radar to even make the team," manager David Ross said of Megill. "He's been doing great in South Bend, attacking hitters, throwing strikes, secondary pitches have been in the zone. His name jumped out when we were talking about some guys to bring up."
The Long Beach, Calif., native was a seventh-round pick of San Diego in 2015 out of Loyola Marymount. The Cubs claimed him off waivers last year and he spent 2020 in South Bend.
Adam had a rough outing in Sunday's ninth inning against Milwaukee. He faced 5 batters and all of them ended up scoring, turning a 1-0 deficit to 6-0, and raising his season ERA to 9.45. Ross talked about Adam's struggles after the game.
"I think it's the secondary stuff that just doesn't seem like he can find, to me," Ross said. "The fastball, I thought, played the other day pretty well. Just haven't seen the secondary pitches get over for strikes much. It's a hard enough game trying to execute pitches, but when you've only got the fastball to try to locate, it makes it difficult to pitch out there, I don't care how hard you're throwing."
Wick has been shelved with an oblique issue since the end of last season and this move suggests he's not very close to a return.
"Rowan's doing OK. He got a little bit of soreness in between bullpens," Ross said. "Things were progressing really fast and I think some of the abdominal stuff, the oblique stuff popped back up, just from a soreness standpoint. So we just slowed him down a little bit."
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