The Cubs on Friday recalled right-hander Porter Hodge from Triple-A Iowa and placed fellow righty Colten Brewer on the 15-day injured list due to tightness in his lower back, tweets Meaghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. Hodge will give the Cubs a fresh arm in the bullpen, and if he gets into a game, it’ll be his big league debut.
Hodge, 23, was the team’s 13th-round pick back in 2019. He entered the season ranked 19th among Cubs prospects at Baseball America and 24th at both FanGraphs and MLB.com. His season thus far has been a mixed bag. Hodge fired four shutout innings in Double-A, yielding only one hit and one walk with eight punchouts before being promoted to Triple-A Iowa. Since moving up to Des Moines, he’s struggled to a 6.55 ERA (eight earned runs in 11 innings) while surrendering a dozen hits and issuing a whopping 11 walks. He’s still fanned nearly one in three opponents, but he’s also walked more than one in five of them.
Command has long been an issue for Hodge. He’s walked 12.9% of his opponents dating back to the 2022 season. Scouting reports on the big 6’4″, 230-pound righty tout both his heater and his slider as potential plus offerings, but the effectiveness of both could be undercut by shaky command of each. There’s potential for the right-hander to play a long-term role in the Chicago bullpen, but he’ll likely need to trim a few points of his walk rate to reach his ceiling as a high-leverage reliever.
Brewer, 31, was a minor league signee whom the Cubs called to the big leagues last month. He’s pitched 11 2/3 innings for manager Craig Counsell and turned in a 3.09 ERA with a 12-to-4 K/BB ratio and a strong 48.4% ground-ball rate. The team has not yet provided a timetable for Brewer’s potential return to the roster.
The Cubs bullpen Ferris wheel just keeps going.
Maybe they need a day off?
I see what you did there.
Cubs and Phillies alcs. Book it
I’ll take that bet. It will never happen.
Never say never… somehow the ‘Stros and Brewers ended up changing divisions.
alcs??
Great, a right-handed Luke Little.
That’s quite the name
Changing balls from AA to AAA is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. It has to be so difficult for teams to get an accurate assessment of stuff/control when one ball is tacky and the other is like a cue ball.
The more of these articles you read, the more examples you see of guys who suddenly develop control issues when they reach AAA. I’m with you. MLB should stop trying to manipulate everything and use consistent equipment in order to get consistent results.
I’m surprised more teams aren’t adamant about it. Think of how many bad extensions were given out after the 2019 season.
good article about the slicker balls in 2017 post-season
usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/mlb/2017/10/29/world…
Hodge was still a bit wild in the lower levels but if indeed the only difference is the slickness of the ball then I agree that they use uniform equipment. Maybe they’re trying to save guys who throw 100 from hitting guys in the lower levels, But does that even solve anything? But you guys are right I think it’s stupid. Or just use the pre-tacked balls everywhere. Why not? Some guys are still going to be able to spin it better than others anyway. If it helps control it shortens games, Wasn’t that the focus? If a guy has to throw 35 pitches to get through an inning is that ” Speeding things Up”?
Exactly.
At some point, baseball will get concerned about all the injuries and make a change. One of those changes, I believe, will be a tackier baseball that gives pitchers a bit more control of their pitches which ideally will reduce pitch counts and/or it could lead to less reliance on the bullpen.
Without a doubt, less control is bad for both the pitchers and the hitters.
With a name like that he was born to play baseball
Or be a country singer…
11 walks in 11 innings. Oh joy.
Jed apparently thinks the bullpen is going to fix itself somehow.. the Padres went out of their way to get Luis Arraez, because they felt they needed him to win now..
The Cubs have a bullpen full of flunkies, and Jed is like “Maybe Porter Hodge will save us!”
Walks drive me crazy, especially from relievers. But with 7-8 bullpen guys on the IL, they needed to bring someone up. They needed a guy that was already on the 40-man roster that could be optioned, so Hodge is the next guy. He’ll be the last guy in the bullpen, so no one is under the illusion that he’s the “savior”. If he does come into a game, it’s highly unlikely to be an important moment.
As far as a trade, I don’t think there are a lot of elite guys avaliable 47 games into the season. Personally I’d prefer Hoyer to hold his water until guys they have get healthy and then evaluate rolling to the deadline. Ultimately I do think they will need to get an elite bullpen arm.
Some cubs fans have been wanting Hodge and Arias brought up since our bullpen has been trash. I hope the kid can rein in his walks cuz he has nasty stuff.
A veritable cornucopia of relievers. Sadly, I don’t think the Cubs are done on that end.
All those guys have nasty stuff. Hodge was just brought up because he was on the 40 man already. And Arias is still at AA and for the life of me I have no idea why. When Casali left it was a perfect opportunity to get Aliendo to AAA but who did they promote? Caleb Knight. Are you freakin kidding me?
When Casali left they had a perfect opportunity to promote Aliendo to AAA but who do they get? Caleb Knight, Wyndham and Ali Sanchez. If Pevey can win with those guys he should get a MLB job somewhere. Maybe Miami or Oakland.
I have to think that they have Aliendo working on something hitting-related at AA right now. But they need to get him to AAA soon. As it is, I am concerned that Aliendo won’t start the 2025 season as the big league backup.
Also, who does Carl Edwards have to sleep with to get selected and called up?
So you bring Edwards up now. First you have to axe somebody to give him a 40 man spot. Who’s that? Davis finally doing something. Wisdom and Mastrobuoni are Hoyer pets. What else ya got? Brewer was getting it done until he got hurt. Smyly and Wicks probably going on rehab after their second Bullpens today. I have no idea where anybody else is health wise. So you bring up Edwards 2 guys come back then you have to cut him loose right away because you can’t send him down. Any old guy like that you bring up you have to keep because he can’t be sent back down. That’s why they’re not here.