Cubs Acquire Rangers Reliever Matt Festa; Say Goodbye to Miles Mastrobuoni

[Matthew Trueblood]

On an offseason deadline day just barely important enough to stir some roster shuffling, the Cubs continued to amass relief depth, and reduced their number of bench options by one—for now.

Image courtesy of © Jim Cowsert-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs sent cash to the Texas Rangers Thursday, in exchange for right-handed reliever Matt Festa. To facilitate Festa's addition to their already-full 40-man roster, the team designated utility man Miles Mastrobuoni for assignment. It's the end of an era, in one small, annoying way, as Mastrobuoni was part of a cadre of ultimately unhelpful but understandable bench gambles the Cubs tried out over the past three seasons, drawing disproportionate ire for their inability to buttress a too-thin lineup. It also poses new and intriguing questions about a bullpen competition that already felt topped up with fringy but interesting right-handed hurlers.

Festa, 31, comes with four years of hypothetical team control, but he's both out of options and injury-prone. Even when he's been on the mound in the majors, his results have not been pretty. The Rangers had designated Festa for assignment to accommodate Chris Martin, whom they signed earlier this week. This is, in other words, a very small move.

At the same time, you can see what the Cubs see in him. He is (and stop me when this sounds familiar) a low-slot guy without premium velocity, but with good cutting action on his four-seamer; a cutter; and a sweeper that can be devastating when he can command it well. In short, he's a dead ringer for the profile of Tyson Miller, whom the Cubs landed last May and who thrived for them thereafter. To be fair, though, Miller's previous big-league results were better than Festa's, even before the Cubs got hold of him.

Depending on how you count a couple of compelling arms who could still be aiming for rotation roles, this move gives the Cubs anywhere from 14 to 17 people competing seriously for their eight bullpen spots. That's not counting anyone off the 40-man roster, like non-roster invitees Phil Bickford, Brooks Kriske, and Ben Heller—all of whom are actually more promising than a couple of guys who remain on the 40-man right now.

In total, the team is carrying 24 pitchers and just 16 position players on their reserve list. That's not unheard of, during an offseason, but it means that some paring down and reshuffling remains to be done. In fact, since we know that the team also intends to sign or trade for at least one more high-profile, high-end pitcher in either the bullpen or the rotation, we can mentally tick one of the guys off the bottom of the current pecking order and still have made no progress toward balancing the roster the way they'll want to.

Mastrobuoni's departure will not be mourned in any quarter, except perhaps by those who like to keep the 40-man roster balanced even in the winter. He became utterly redundant this winter, as the team brought aboard two utility men (Vidal Bruján and Gage Workman) with almost exactly the same balance of upside and flaws that make you doubt they'll ever reach it. Mastrobuoni joins Nick Madrigal, Patrick Wisdom, and Mike Tauchman among the exodus from the Cubs' bench, and it's increasingly clear to me that the team also intends to make at least a modestly impactful addition on the positional side of the roster sheet. That's good, and necessary. It feels like Craig Counsell has pushed for that for a while now, and it's happening.

Festa probably won't be even the caliber of breakout bullpen booster that Miller was, but dealing for him makes sense, and Masdtrobuoni is a welcome bit of chaff-clearing. The Cubs continue to set the stage. Sooner or later, they just need to show us for whom they're doing so.

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