Various deadlines for MLB teams come and go during the offseason, and today was one of those deadline days. Specifically, teams had to add players to their 40-man rosters by 5 p. m.
CT Tuesday to protect them from being taken in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. The Cubs, to no one’s surprise, protected top prospect Owen Caissie, who is also the No. 34 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100.
Caissie, who turned 22 in July, batted . 278/. 375/.
473 with 29 doubles and 19 home runs in 127 games for Triple-A Iowa in 2024. Right now, Caissie’s path to the major leagues is probably blocked, and he might benefit from another year at Iowa. The point of this move, obviously, is simply to protect Caissie from the Rule 5 Draft.
As a 40-man roster player, he’ll also participate in major league Spring Training in early 2025. The Cubs also added infielder Ben Cowles to the 40-man. Cowles was acquired from the Yankees, along with Jack Neely, for Mark Leiter Jr.
at the trade deadline last July. Injured when acquired, Cowles, who turns 25 in February, played only four games at Iowa and then batted . 213/.
298/. 320 (16-for-75) in 19 games in the Arizona Fall League. Cowles had hit pretty well (.
295/. 376/. 472 with 25 doubles and nine home runs in 88 games) at Double-A Somerset in the Yankees system before being injured.
Since the 40-man roster was full entering today, to make room for Caissie and Cowles, the Cubs designated Adbert Alzolay and Brennen Davis for assignment. This is just sad. Alzolay, too, was a Top 100 prospect (2018, Baseball Prospectus) and pitched in the 2019 Futures Game.
He first came to the big leagues as a possible rotation starter and but then became a closer, a role in which he did well in 2023 until he was injured late in the season. Then he started 2024 also injured and finally went on the IL in mid-May. Alzolay had Tommy John surgery last August and is unlikely to pitch at all in 2025.
The team could DFA him and then re-sign him to a minor-league deal in the hope that he can return in 2026. Davis is another sad story. Tremendously talented, he just couldn’t stay healthy.
The last two years, he would likely have been on the Cubs major league roster if not for all the injuries. He was a Top 100 prospect four years in a row (2020-23) but played in only 55 games for Iowa in 2024. Perhaps the Cubs will re-sign Davis, who turned 25 earlier this month, to a minor-league deal and give him another chance.
If not, he’ll likely get a chance elsewhere. I wish him well, whatever happens in the future. There will be other roster moves to come later this week, as at this point the 40-man roster remains full.
Friday is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to their arb-eligible and pre-arb players, commonly called the “non-tender deadline. ” The Cubs have quite a few arb-eligible players who could be non-tendered. That deadline comes up at 6 p.
m. CT on Friday. As always, we await developments.
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