Cubs Claim Relief Pitcher Shawn Armstrong From Division Rival

The Cubs, now at 68-66, are still fighting for life ahead of the final month of the 2024 season. As @Matthew Trueblood pointed out earlier today, the Cubs still need some reinforcements in the bullpen as they look to make some noise in September. Though they didn’t elect to claim Taylor Rogers off waivers, they did follow Trueblood’s instructions, plucking right-handed reliever Shawn Armstrong off waivers from the division rival St. Louis Cardinals.

Armstrong wasn’t designated for any performance-related reasons. Indeed, he was quite solid in his very brief stint in St. Louis, pitching to a 2.84 ERA in 12 and ⅔ innings with an impressive 12:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That represented a tangible improvement over the 5.40 ERA he authored in 46 and ⅔ innings with the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this year.

It was just last month that the Cardinals sought out to help Armstrong achieve the exact kind of performance he’s had, trading away former top prospect Dylan Carlson at the trade deadline in order to acquire Armstrong, a half-year rental, for the remainder of the 2024 season. While the reliever has performed adequately, the Cardinals have not, dropping to 6.0 games out of the final wild card spot in the National League, slipping beneath both the Cubs and the New York Mets in the standings.

Much like how the Los Angeles Angels dumped most of their prized deadline acquisitions a year ago in an effort to barely skirt the luxury tax, the Cardinals are doing the same now, essentially punting on the remainder of this season while trying to save some money. Beyond Armstrong, the team also designated Tommy Pham for assignment, another rental deadline acquisition.

While the Cubs and Cardinals are separated by just one game in the standings at the time of the move, the teams are headed in different directions. The Cubs have a positive run differential of plus-36, compared to the Cardinals ugly -57 differential, giving Chicago an expected win-loss record of 71-63. The Cardinals’ expected record is just 61-73.

Most importantly, though, the North Siders surprisingly passed the first luxury tax threshold willingly this season at the trade deadline, which gave them ample reason to claim a successful reliever for the stretch run. Unlike the Cardinals, who are trying to avoid penalties by waiving Pham and Armstrong, the Cubs are already mired in the first tier of overages. Bringing another major league contract aboard does them no harm, outside of the minor financial penalties they’ll face.

The Cubs are assuming roughly $330k in salary commitments for the rest of the season (Armstrong’s pro-rated salary based on his $2.05 million arbitration figure), and as such they’ll incur about $66,000 in luxury tax penalties as well. Armstrong will be a free agent after this season. Expect him to be added to the major league roster in the next 24 hours, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Craig Counsell heavily deploy the veteran reliever who made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

By claiming Armstrong on August 30, the right-hander will be eligible for the playoffs if he is added to the roster before September 1, should the Cubs make it to the postseason.