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The Cubs have announced their moves to add reliever Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila to the 25-man roster:
#Cubs option RHP Justin Grimm and C Victor Caratini to @IowaCubs to make room for Wilson, Avila
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) August 1, 2017
Justin Grimm has had a strange year. He was pretty bad before being sent to Iowa in late May: 7.53 ERA, 1.674 WHIP in 14⅓ innings, with six (!) home runs allowed.
From his recall May 29 through the end of June he was excellent: 0.63 ERA, 0.419 WHIP in the same number of innings.
The calendar turned to July and he got bad again: 7.94 ERA, 1.853 WHIP in 11⅓ innings, though he posted two scoreless appearances in the weekend series in Milwaukee.
Grimm will likely be back in September for bullpen depth. He’s unlikely to be included on the postseason roster.
Victor Caratini clearly has talent, as shown by his .341/.382/.537 line at Iowa before his callup, with eight home runs in 246 at-bats. He has seemed a bit overmatched at times in the major leagues so far: .192/.250/.385 in a small-sample-size 26 at-bats, but his first big-league homer Sunday won the game for the Cubs. He, too, will likely be back in September and should have a shot at winning the full-time backup job behind Willson Contreras in 2015.
What you see now are, in my opinion, likely the men that the Cubs will select from for their postseason roster, presuming they do go on to make the playoffs. Tommy La Stella could be added as an extra bench bat, but beyond that I don’t see the Cubs making any acquisitions in August that would affect the roster in October.