Cubs roster move: Caleb Kilian called up, Conner Menez designated for assignment

You all know the story: Caleb Kilian was acquired from the Giants (along with outfielder Alexander Canario) for Kris Bryant at the trade deadline last July.

Kilian absolutely dominated the Arizona Fall League. His overall numbers there don’t show it (5.14 ERA, eight earned runs in 14⅓ innings), but seven of those runs were in one game, the rest of the time he was lights-out. And those numbers don’t include the six perfect innings he threw in the AFL championship game.

Here are some of his strikeouts in that game along with some comments from Kilian [VIDEO].

Baseball America’s newest prospect ranking, released this week, put Kilian in the Top 100 at number 100.

We’ll see Kilian make his MLB debut tonight when he starts the second game of the doubleheader against the Cardinals. He’s been called up from Triple-A Iowa, where he posted a 2.06 ERA and 1.271 WHIP in nine starts, and been added to the 26-man roster.

To make room for Kilian on the 40-man roster, lefthander Conner Menez has been designated for assignment.

In other moves today, to make room for Kilian on the 26-man roster, righthander Mark Leiter Jr. has been optioned to Triple-A Iowa and righthander Anderson Espinoza has been added to the active roster as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader.

Today's game preview will post at 10:30 a.m. CT.