September 26: Armstrong has been launched, in line with his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
September 20: The Cubs introduced that they’ve activated right-hander Hayden Wesneski from the 15-day injured listing, with fellow righty Shawn Armstrong designated for task in a corresponding transfer. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic was amongst these to relay the strikes on X.
Armstrong, 34, solely joined the membership three weeks in the past. His ends in a small pattern of appearances since then have been fantastic and this transfer says extra in regards to the membership than about him. He was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals on the finish of August when the Cubs had been inside 5 video games of a playoff spot with a month left to go. Now they’re seven video games again with simply over every week remaining on the schedule.
The veteran righty is an impending free agent, so the Cubs have little use for him now as they play out the string on this season. They’ll put him on waivers within the coming days. He wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any claiming membership, so there’s little incentive for one nonetheless in rivalry to place in a declare as they must tackle the rest of his $2.05MM wage. That will be lower than $100K by the point the waiver course of performs out however the membership would additionally solely obtain a couple of week of Armstrong’s providers in change.
Armstrong has already pitched for 3 groups this 12 months, tossing 66 2/3 innings between the Rays, Cardinals and Cubs. His 4.86 earned run common isn’t terribly spectacular however his different numbers paint a nicer image. His 22.4% strikeout price and eight.5% stroll price are each pretty near league common. His .362 batting common on balls in play appears to be hurting him, which is why his 3.58 FIP and three.95 SIERA are considerably higher than his ERA.
The Rays obtained good outcomes out of Armstrong within the earlier two seasons. He tossed 55 innings for them in 2022 with a 3.60 ERA. Final 12 months, he gave the Rays 52 innings with a tiny ERA of 1.38. That quantity is unquestionably just a little deceptive, as his .250 BABIP and 80.9% strand price helped him out, however he did submit a 26.1% strikeout price and 5.3% stroll price.
This 12 months, as talked about, his ERA hasn’t been as sturdy. However the Cardinals evidently believed within the under-the-hood numbers, as they despatched two-plus years of Dylan Carlson to the Rays to be able to get Armstrong previous to the deadline. Just some weeks into August, that they had slid sufficient within the standings that they put Armstrong on waivers and saved a bit of cash by having the Cubs declare him.
If Armstrong goes unclaimed within the coming days, he has sufficient service time to reject an outright task and preserve what’s left of this 12 months’s wage, so maybe he’ll get his offseason began a couple of days forward of schedule. That’s except some crew in a good playoff race will probably be interested by snagging him off the wire for the ultimate week of the season.