Cubs Roster Move: Ian Happ Called Up

Some Cubs fans have been clamoring for the callup of prospect Ian Happ, who’s been hitting quite well at Triple-A Iowa: .298/.362/.615 (31-for-104) with six doubles and nine home runs. He’s 9 for his last 18. Here’s a grand slam he hit last month:

Due to injury and illness, the Cubs find themselves somewhat short of position players for the rest of the weekend, and thus those of you wanting this get your wish:

There has to be a “corresponding move” to this, as the Cubs can’t carry 26 men on the 25-man roster. I’ll update this post when there is one.

UPDATE: Here’s the roster move.

This means the Cubs are going with seven relievers for a while — probably necessary since a couple of position players are not available.

A bit of trivia:

The Cubs had an open spot on their 40-man roster, so Happ was able to be added to that roster without removing anyone. This does begin Happ’s service-time and arbitration clocks, if that’s of concern to anyone. The 40-man roster is now full.

I’d imagine Happ isn’t up to sit on the bench, that he’ll likely get a couple of starts before heading back to Iowa when everyone’s healthy. My guess is that Happ sticks around until Jason Heyward comes off the disabled list, but everything seems pretty much in flux right now.

As always, we await further developments. The game preview post will be delayed until the Cubs post their lineup.