Prior to Saturday's game against the San Francisco Giants, the Cubs recalled Javier Assad from Triple-A and in a corresponding move optioned Ethan Roberts. Assad has spent some time in the majors this year, posting a 5.89 ERA through 26 innings. He's started games and made some bullpen appearances, and while a near 6.0 ERA is obviously ugly, it doesn't tell the full story. Of Assad's 17 earned runs, 15 of them are from 2 starts, and while that obviously isn't okay, he could still be a bullpen piece for Chicago amidst their struggles.
Coming out of the bullpen, Assad only gave up 1 run through 8 innings. Perhaps he was able to make an adjustment in Iowa and Chicago thinks he can continue to be a valuable piece of their bullpen. He's shown before that he's capable of quality appearances, and the Cubs could use some desperately.
Assad's recalling comes at a cost
The move seems fine, until you realize that Ethan Roberts, the Chicago reliever who was optioned back to Triple-A in order to bring up Assad, has an ERA under two through nearly 20 innings on the season. The leash on Roberts doesn't seem to be very long. In his most recent outing, Roberts gave up on run in one and two thirds' innings in the Cubs blowout loss against the Giants, where they were completely embarrassed on all fronts.
A large majority of Cubs fans just simply cannot understand this move, and reasonably so, as Chicago continues to have Phil Maton, who has over a 7 ERA on the season, consistently make appearances out of the bullpen. The Cubs cannot afford to have Roberts in the minors after he's finally found his footing at the major league level. There's only so much he can improve on in Triple-A, and if anything this move risks Roberts' comfort at the major league level once he's inevitably called back up. In the meantime, Chicago best hope that Assad can provide quality innings, or this decision will seem like more of a blunder than it already does.
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