Roster Update: Cubs Send La Stella to the Farm, Activate Coghlan

With Chris Coghlan coming back off the DL today the Cubs needed to send someone down in order to make room on the 25-man roster. That player turned out to be Tommy La Stella, someone who’s been having a pretty good year so far for the Cubs, slashing .295/.388/.457 in 122 plate appearances. That’s on top of a 129 wRC+ for the year.

The Cubs traded Arismendy Alcantara for Coghlan on June 9. That was after the Cubs lost Jorge Soler to a hamstring injury that he’s currently rehabbing at double-A Tennessee. And yes, Coghlan hasn’t been nearly as effective this year as La Stella but he’s also out of options, so if the Cubs designate him for assignment they’d likely lose him to another team and, by doing so, would have given up Alcantara for nothing. It happens somtimes but for now the Cubs are trying to avoid that.

Speaking of Soler, things will get even more complicated once he returns to the Roster, which is expected to happen any time now. He’s already played in four games for the Tennessee Smokies on his rehab assignment. My guess, if I had to make one, is that the Cubs may send Carl Edwards Jr. – or another pitcher since they’ve got 13 on the active roster – down to Iowa once Soler returns.

These moves are all minutia right now since the roster will expand to 40 men on September 1. When it does, these guys will likely all get back up to the Cubs. For now, the Cubs have a good problem – they have to send guys down to the minors that are otherwise perfectly capable of being regular big league players.