Cubs to select P, Chris Flexen

[Jason Ross]

Per Jesse Rogers, the Cubs will select P Chris Flexen from Iowa today. This is not related to the Shota Imanaga cramp, and is related to his impending FA. 

Flexen is not on the 40-man, and the Cubs have a full 40-man so a corosponding move will have to happen

[mul21]

To the pen or are they getting creative somehow?  

[Transmogrified Tiger]

With no off day til May 8th and Shota slightly gimpy, I would guess they option Cosgrove since he went 2 last night and then Flexen and Wicks would be in contention for a start/piggyback if they want to give anyone in the rotation 5 days rest.  Wicks can go back down after if they need a live arm.

[ILMindState]

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player/chris-flexen-14596

 

Flexen could have opted out of his minor-league contract on May 1 if not added to the big-league roster by then, and the Cubs have decided to keep him around

[Jason Ross]

13 minutes ago, mul21 said:

To the pen or are they getting creative somehow?  

My guess is that he's going to take a 40-man spot that will be vacated by Assad to the 60-Day IL. Cosgrove, who pitched last night, feels like the guy who gets optioned (akin to Holliwell the other day). 

Plan for Flexen is probably something around being the piggyback fallback for Ben Brown. But I really don't think there's success to be found. Ignore the ERA in Triple-A, and everything else is not good. A good amount of hard contact and a lack of ground balls against worse-than-MLB pitching. The Cubs have altered the armslot but unlike Colin Rea, I don't think they're going to find the same level of success. 

In their defense, if Brown needs a piggyback, it's probably because he isn't pitching well, so Flexen will be the "designated loser" more than someone thrust into an important game situation. I think in the end it won't be a major deal, they won't actually lose anyone, but I don't think Flexen is someone I'd really worry about opting out or not, myself. 

Here is Cosgrove's Triple-A statcast: