SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, GM Jed Hoyer and manager Dale Sveum met on Wednesday night to make their final roster decisions for this season.
The moves got tweeted out by various sources Thursday morning, but to summarize:
- Randy Wells won't be in the bullpen. He's been sent to Iowa. That's actually probably better for him; he'll start there and be available for injury replacement.
- Steve Clevenger has been given the backup catcher job over Welington Castillo; Castillo presumably will be the starter at Iowa.
I'll add any further moves to this post if/when they are announced. Some seem surprised by the optioning of Wells to Iowa; as noted above, I think this is actually better both for Wells and the team. Wells doesn't seem well-suited to a relief role and this will allow him to continue starting.
It also likely means that Rodrigo Lopez has made the team in that nebulous "long-relief" role that never gets used. If RoLo and Blake DeWitt and Joe Mather have all made the team, moves will have to be made on the 40-man roster, which currently stands at 39 players. One likely move will be shifting Marcos Mateo to the 60-day DL, but that would still leave one place that would have to be determined.
Awaiting further developments, which include the sending down of Blake Lalli, Blake Parker, Travis Wood, Scott Maine, Matt Tolbert and Dave Sappelt. None of those moves should surprise you. UPDATE: Casey Coleman and Edgar Gonzalez (not Alfredo Amezaga as previously posted) were also sent to the minor league camp; neither of those is a surprise.