(670 The Score) As the Cubs try to make a late charge for the final National League wild-card spot, they prioritized veteran depth rather than youth development as rosters just expanded in September.
In adding veteran infielder Miles Mastrobuoni to the active roster, the Cubs left outfielder Owen Caissie at Triple-A Iowa rather than promote him. In an appearance on the Mully & Haugh Show on Tuesday morning, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer explained the team's thinking about the 22-year-old Caissie's future. The Cubs had conversations about promoting Caissie but don't feel it’s beneficial for Caissie to join the big league club without regular at-bats available for him.
“The challenge is playing time,” Hoyer said. “You want to make sure that when he comes up, he’s going to play. Having him come up as a bench bat doesn’t make a lot of sense, and the way our roster is constructed right now, there isn’t really a lot of available playing time. We’re trying to make this playoff push right now. Because of the nature of our early season, we don’t have a lot of margin for error with that.
“Certainly, he’s done a lot of really good things in Iowa, opened a lot of eyes and he’s a big part of our future.”
Caissie is hitting .278 with 15 home runs and 66 RBIs in 111 games at Iowa this season. He was acquired by the Cubs as part of their trade of right-hander Yu Darvish to the Padres in December 2020.
The Cubs host the Pirates on Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field in the second game of a three-game series. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on 670 The Score as well as on the Audacy app in the Chicagoland area. Pregame coverage starts at 6:05 p.m.