It appears that was probably the main reason. Screwing Russell over is a nice side effect, though. I'm sure Edith Cox is out somewhere bemoaning that that's thousands of dollars that could've gone to his children and saying the Cubs are in the wrong for this. Nico was in the organization on 8-31 and can replace any of our 60 day DL pitchers assuming they haven't added a position requirement. I have no clue how the rule works, but my assumption was that he had to be replacing a DL'd person when he was brought to the majors to be eligible.