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We are all starved for big baseball news. ANY big baseball news, but preferably big Cubs baseball news.
What I have to bring you this morning is Cubs baseball news of a small nature:
League source says Cubs have signed righty Ryan Weber to a minor league deal. Weber, 27, was a solid Braves prospect for a while (command/control/groundball swing guy), got a handful of starts for Braves and Mariners in 2015, 16, 17. Biceps injury derailed 2017.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) January 3, 2018
Ryan Weber was the Braves’ 22nd-round pick in 2009, and as noted in the tweet, had some pretty good years in their system before making his major-league debut for Atlanta in 2015. He was selected off waivers by the Mariners after the 2016 season.
One thing that likely attracted the Cubs to Weber is his very low walk rate, which remained consistent throughout his minor-league career — 1.5 walks per nine innings over a total of 670 minor-league innings. He maintained that through 22 big-league appearances (68⅓ innings) — 1.4 walks per nine.
A guy like this, presuming he’s now healthy again, could be in the mix for the bullpen in 2018, or at least be one of the guys shuttling back and forth between Iowa and Chicago to be an injury-replacement bullpen guy.
I’m sorry I don’t have bigger Cubs transaction news for you, but until that happens, this will have to do.
Poll
Ryan Weber!
This poll is closed
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31%
Yea!
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3%
Nay!
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65%
Meh