According to a report on ESPN 1000 in Chicago, the Cubs optioned Rocky Cherry to Triple-A Iowa after Thursday’s loss to the Phillies to make room on the active roster for Kerry Wood on Friday.
Wood is currently on the 60-day DL and it will require another roster move before the Cubs can add Wood to the 25-man roster for Friday. Lou Piniella recently mentioned the Cubs could carry 13 pitchers on their roster. Piniella backed off a little from that statement on Thursday but with Sean Marshall’s short outing on Thursday, Piniella might revisit that idea.
The Cubs do not have a long man out of the pen and while the addition of Kerry Wood gives them another power arm in late innings (and on paper a very dominant back end of the pen) it also puts more importance on getting quality outings out of their starters.
Will update if more information becomes available….