Roster Moves: Choi Back; Wellemeyer Sent Down; Sisco Returns; Ryu Promoted
Hee Seop Choi has completed his rehab assignment and will rejoin the Cubs today as they start a series against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Choi went 3-for-21 with a homer, double, and four walks with Iowa. To make room for Choi on the roster, the Cubs sent down Todd Wellemeyer. Wellemeyer has struggled in his last couple of outings.
Unfortunately, Dusty Baker may not completely return to the righty-lefty platoon between Choi and Eric Karros, all three Chicago dailies report in Monday’s papers. All three papers play up the fact that Karros has hit well over the last 8-10 games and ignore the fact that Choi has an 883 OPS against righties this year versus Karros’s 749. Despite the overall tone of the articles (that Karros is likely to have more playing time than he had before Choi was injured), however, Baker’s comments regarding the first base situation were a bit cryptic:
“Eric is playing outstanding right now. There is not going to be any controversy. We are going to get Hee Seop in there, too. He won’t get his stroke back sitting around. But it’ll depend on the pitcher and how Hee Seop looks.”
So who knows what will happen. Though it does appear that Choi doesn’t have much margin for error.
In minor league roster moves, pitching prospect Andy Sisco returned from his broken hand, which he received by punching a wall, to pitch two innings on Sunday, reports the Lansing State Journal. He gave up a three-run homer. To make room for Sisco on the Lansing roster, the Cubs promoted Jae Kuk Ryu to Double-A West Tennessee. Ryu was 6-1 with a 1.75 ERA in 11 starts for Lansing. He had 57 strikeouts and 19 walks in 72 innings pitched. He likely bypassed High-A Daytona as much because of the osprey incident as his dominating pitching.