Ross wonders if he should have closed clubhouse to MMA star
The Cubs added catcher Austin Romine to the undeclared injury list before Thursday's game.
He joins Patrick Wisdom on the shelf and the lack of specificity almost certainly means there was a positive COVID test or close contact involved.
Before the game, manager David Ross talked about the Cubs maybe being a little careless last week at Wrigley Field by letting MMA fighter Connor McGregor into the clubhouse to greet players. McGregor threw out the first pitch and sang the seventh inning stretch last Tuesday.
McGregor's visit almost certainly had nothing to do with the current problems, but might have been a bad call in retrospect.
"That's probably more on me," Ross said. "The guy were excited (about meeting McGregor), I let that happen. So I think that's an area where I let my guard down and probably shouldn't have. So I'll take responsibility for that.
"I haven't heard if Connor is positive or not. We haven't kept in touch. But we're traveling, we're around strangers every single day, so I think it's hard to know for anybody where it actually comes from. The Connor stuff should be on my plate. I should be better."
The Cubs added catcher Erick Castillo from Iowa to take Romine's spot. He's the eighth catcher the Cubs have used this season, the 66th player the Cubs have used this season and the 14th player to make his major-league debut with the Cubs this year.
Castillo, a Venezuela native, first signed with the Cubs in 2012 at age 19, so his promotion has been a long time coming. He grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning. Infielder Trent Giambrone made his major-league debut on Wednesday and singled in his first at-bat.
The Cubs also made sure to have five taxi squad players arrive in Pittsburgh, just in case there any more issues arise. One of the taxi squad players was Maine West grad Tyler Ladendorf, who had been playing for Iowa.
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