Cubs roster move: Ronald Torreyes reacquired in trade with Yankees

One of the very first trades Theo Epstein & Co. made after taking over the baseball operations department of the Cubs was sending Sean Marshall to the Reds. In return the Cubs got Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt and a minor league infielder named Ronald Torreyes.

Torreyes eventually wound up with the Yankees after a journey through several organizations.

And now, he’s back:

Here’s Torreyes’ odyssey after he went to the Astros:

Torreyes made his major-league debut for the Yankees in 2015, after which they waived and re-claimed him the following offseason. He’s hit .281/.310/.375 in 615 major-league plate appearances over the last three years. He’s mostly a second baseman but can also play shortstop.

I would guess that the return on this will be “cash considerations,” as is typical in deals like this. It would seem to me that Torreyes is the new Mike Freeman; he’s likely going to be stashed at Triple-A Iowa in case he is needed, though he’d have to be run through waivers at that point as he is out of options.

The trade in which Torreyes was originally acquired worked out well for the Cubs. Sappelt did very little, but Wood was a useful roster piece for several years and Torreyes was swapped for IFA money, while Marshall had only one full year with the Reds and then his career was ended by injury. Marshall produced 1.1 bWAR for the Reds, while Wood posted 5.6 bWAR in his Cubs career.

Among the players the Cubs signed with that 2013 IFA money were Gleyber Torres and Eloy Jimenez, who both were dealt away to bring major-league players to the Cubs. The Cubs still have Erling Moreno, who was at South Bend last year at age 21, left in the system.

The Cubs’ 40-man roster now stands at 39.