In All Likelihood, Sad End to a Happy Marriage Between Adbert Alzolay and the Cubs

Baseball is cruel. It's not the sport's fault; it's part of life. Still, it punches you in the gut sometimes, when a player who deserves so many good things and has been so steadfastly denied them takes yet another of fate's blows. Adbert Alzolay, who has been out since May with an arm injury that always sounded ominous, will have to undergo arm surgery in the coming days. Second opinions await, but one of the operations being considered is Tommy John surgery, so the range of possibilities doesn't include any good ones.

Relentlessly positive, energetic, and a joy to watch at his briefly-achieved best, Alzolay was star-crossed during his rise through the Cubs system, dealing with his share of injuries then. The reprieve he received from the gods of tendons and ligaments last year proved how good he can be, but the joy couldn't last. Alzolay's cataclysmic struggles (while pitching, in all likelihood, through the very injury that will now require a surgical repair) early on were a crippling blow to the Cubs bullpen, but losing him altogether felt like the fatal one. They didn't stabilize the relief corps until the season was essentially lost, due mostly to injuries to Alzolay, Julian Merryweather, and Yency Almonte.

The saddest, most unhappy news here is that the injury probably effectively ends Alzolay's time with the Cubs organization. He's already on the 60-day injured list, and can shelter there the rest of the season, but that list is inactivated during the offseason, and players with long-term injuries have to be placed back onto the 40-man roster. The Cubs can't do that for Alzolay. They face a looming roster crunch this winter, and if they're remotely serious about winning in 2025, they will make moves that exacerbate that, rather than ones that alleviate it. They can't dedicate a spot to a player who is unlikely to help them at all next season, throughout a winter in which they need and intend to be active.

Other teams, with other players who have achieved more and proved their ability for longer, work out multi-year deals in situations like these, so a player can be paid and retained while they rehab, then get paid considerably more when they come back the following season. It's unlikely that such an arrangement will be feasible for this combination of team and player. At some point early in the offseason, the Cubs will have to waive or designate Alzolay for assignment, and he's very, very likely to be claimed by a team for whom 2025 is more of a rebuilding season.

This isn't the ending Alzolay's time with the Cubs deserved. He's been a great citizen of the team, a supportive teammate and an ambassador to the fans. He's been a downright dominant relief pitcher, too, albeit only for a few months. Unfortunately, the gods of tendons and ligaments don't care what players or teams deserve.