Updated 1:17pm CST, Jan. 18 – Jason McLeod confirmed Sunday morning the Cubs signed RHP Daniel Bard to a minor league contract.
According to a report from Hardball Talk citing Mike Perchick as its source, the Cubs signed RHP Daniel Bard to a minor league contract. The deal includes a non-roster invitation to big league camp.
If Daniel Bard makes the Cubs big league team out of Spring Training, he will have a base salary of $1 million. The contract includes an incentives package based on appearances.
Nick Cafardo recently spoke with Daniel Bard and the former top set-up man says he’s fully recovered from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery last January. Bard told Cafardo it was “a perfect storm of events that worked against him.” The surgery addressed the numbness in his hand that he “dealt with for years.”
From the report on thoracic outlet syndrome: According to the Cleveland Clinic, thoracic outlet syndrome describes “a group of disorders that occur when there is compression, injury, or irritation of the nerves and/or blood vessels (arteries and veins) in the lower neck and upper chest area. Thoracic outlet syndrome is named for the space (the thoracic outlet) between your lower neck and upper chest where this grouping of nerves and blood vessels is found.” The surgery requires “taking a rib or a shoulder bone out.”
Daniel Bard still struggled in the Rangers system last year and could not throw strikes, but said he hasn’t felt this good since 2012 if not before 2011.
Bard also lost confidence and doesn’t understand why. He says his arm “is fresh” and “he just wants for his career to be relevant again.”
Daniel Bard pitched in two games for the Red Sox in 2013. The Cubs claimed him off waivers at the end of the season. Bard did not pitch for the Cubs or in the system. He struggled in winter ball and was not tendered a contract for the 2014 season. Bard was granted free agency on Dec. 2, 2013. Last year in the Rangers’ system, Bard appeared in four games in A-ball. Bard walked nine batters, hit seven and struck out one in two-thirds of an inning.
According to Baseball America, the Cubs signed LHP Francisley Bueno to a minor league contract. Baseball America did not say if the deal includes a non-roster invite to big league camp, but it should.
The Royals non-tendered Bueno, who turns 34 on March 5.
Francisley Bueno appeared in 30 games for the Royals last year, all in relief, and allowed 16 runs, 15 earned, on 36 hits with 20 strikeouts and seven walks in 32 1/3 innings. Bueno broke in with the Braves in 2008 and has been with the Royals for the last three seasons.
Bueno is 2-1 in 56 relief appearances in the majors with a 2.98 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 3.57 FIP.