Cubs sign Dan Winkler to a one-year deal

If you’re looking for big Cubs signings, I don’t have one for you. Not yet, anyway (and probably not at all).

But I do have this:

Dan Winkler is a 29-year-old righthander (turns 30 in February) who had a fairly effective year with the Braves in 2018: 69 games, 3.43 ERA, 1.193 WHIP, 69 strikeouts in 60⅓ innings, a good walk rate (3.0 per nine innings). He was not as effective in 2019, posting a 4.98 ERA and 1.338 WHIP, and was eventually traded to the Giants in the Mark Melancon deal. He spent the rest of the year at the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento.

No terms of this one-year deal have yet been revealed. I’ll update this post when there’s more information.

It should be noted that Winkler was drafted by the Cubs in 2010, in a round that no longer exists (43rd), but didn’t sign. Eventually he was drafted by the Rockies the following year and went to the Braves in the 2014 Rule 5 draft.

In 2016, Winkler had made the Braves Opening Day roster and was pitching in just his third game of the season when this happened:

He had fractured his elbow while throwing that pitch. It cost him the rest of the 2016 season, but he recovered to throw well in 2017 and 2018. Hopefully he can do so again in 2020 for the Cubs.