It’s been raining for a few days in Arizona and that led to mostly indoor workouts for the Cubs on Thursday. Anyway, here are the latest updates from Cubs spring training.
The Cubs will treat Tyler Chatwood as a starting pitcher in spring training and he’ll start on Sunday.
Cubs rotation pitches will be in games beginning late next week . Tyler Chatwood will start this Sunday and get stretched out all spring .
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) February 21, 2019
Makes more sense because even if Chatwood isn’t needed as a starter it’s much easier to go from starting to a relief role than the other way around. Also, Mike Montgomery is slightly behind the other pitchers in camp, so in case of emergency Chatwood might be the fill in starter if there’s an injury.
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And speaking of Mike Montgomery, he has a lofty goal for the 2019 season.
Mike Montgomery is ready to "be a guy that can start 20 games or close 20 games" this season as Cubs' versatile swing man: https://t.co/szVjZ0sSj5 via @MLB
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 21, 2019
Well, he does have closing experience.
Here’s a rough outline of when you’ll see the main pitchers.
Top relievers like Strop and Cishek won't get much work until we get into March probably. Main starters might get in there late next week (so around March 1)
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) February 21, 2019
It’s spring training, so you know that means we’re getting more “best shape of their life” stories. This time it’s Albert Almora Jr.
Albert Almora Jr. is in such great shape this spring, he's actually become unrecognizable to his own manager:
"He can not look better than he looks right now. I didn't even know that was him running after some fly balls," Maddon said.
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) February 21, 2019
Joe Maddon clarified how he’s handling lineups in 2019.
Joe Maddon clarifies whole "series by series" lineups thing. Instead of letting players know the day before if they're in/out of lineup, Maddon/Cubs coaches will try to map out a series at a time and let everybody know before that series begins what lineups *may* look like.
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) February 21, 2019
You can read more about that below. It was one frustration coming from players that Theo Epstein discussed after the 2018 season.
Here’s Joe Maddon’s First Major Adjustment For The 2019 Cubs
Speaking of planning ahead, Cubs pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay took advantage of his time off in 2018 to scout MLB hitters.
Cubs top pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay couldn't get out on a mound to continue his development last summer, so instead he poured himself into watching video of MLB hitters and figuring out how to attack them for when he gets that call to "The Show":https://t.co/e8iBkcjbYC
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) February 21, 2019
Ben Zobrist still hasn’t arrived to Mesa. The Cubs haven’t updated his status and have only said he’s not at camp yet because of personal reasons.
Finally, if the Cubs want to upgrade their backup catcher spot, they can easily do it by signing Martin Maldonado.
Martín Maldonado Is Begging To Get Signed *cough* CUBS *cough*
Hey, one more day until Cubs baseball!
