The Cubs made it official Friday afternoon. Kyle Schwarber was recalled from Triple-A Iowa and Miguel Montero was placed on the 15-day DL with a sprained left thumb retroactive to July 12.
Kyle Schwarber is in the starting lineup for Friday’s opener in Atlanta. Schwarber is batting second and catching. Friday is Schwarber’s first start behind the plate in the majors.
Miguel Montero was scheduled to see a hand specialist in Chicago on Friday. The Cubs have not addressed how much time he is expected to miss. Reports have suggested Montero could be sidelined for six weeks.
Montero, 32, is batting .230/.337/.392 (50-for-217) with five doubles, 10 home runs and 32 RBI in 73 games with a .729 OPS during his first season with the Cubs.
With the two roster moves the team announced Friday, the 25-man roster currently consists of 13 pitchers (five starter and eight relievers) and 12 position players.
The 22-year-old Schwarber returns for his second stint with the Cubs this season, as he batted .364 (8-for-22) with a triple, home run and six RBI during a six-game run from June 16-21. He made his big league debut as a defensive replacement on June 16 vs. Cleveland and made his first start on June 17 in Cleveland, going 4-for-5 with a triple, RBI and three runs scored as the designated hitter. Schwarber recorded his first big league home run the next night in Cleveland.
Following his big league stint, Schwarber was optioned to Iowa for his first stop at Triple-A and batted .333 (20-for-60) with seven doubles, three homers, 10 RBI and seven walks in 17 games. On Sunday in Cincinnati, Schwarber was named Most Valuable Player of the Futures Game after going 1-for-3 with a two-run triple as the starting catcher and three-hole hitter for the U.S. Team in their 10-1 victory vs. the World Team.
Schwarber was selected by the Cubs in the first round of the 2014 Draft (fourth overall) and has batted .333 (173-for-519) with 35 doubles, 34 homers, 102 RBI, 88 walks and a 1.042 OPS in 147 minor league games. He began the season ranked the fourth-best prospect in the organization by Baseball America and was recently ranked the 10th-best prospect in all of baseball by ESPN.com.
The left-handed hitting Schwarber began the 2015 season with Tennessee, where he batted .320 (63-for-197) with 10 doubles, one triple, 13 home runs and 39 RBI in 58 games to earn Southern League All-Star honors. He turned in a .438 on-base percentage and a .579 slugging percentage, good for a 1.017 OPS, prior to his June 16 call-up to the majors.
Schwarber was drafted by the Cubs out of Indiana University, where he was a two-time First-Team All-American after batting .341 with 40 home runs and 149 RBI in 180 career games. He was named one of three finalists for the 2014 Johnny Bench Award, given to the top Division One catcher in the nation, and was selected as the top catcher in the country by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association in 2013.
The 6-foot, 235-pound Schwarber played across three levels in the Cubs system last year, culminating with 44 games with Single-A Daytona. He hit above .300 at each level and collected three Player of the Week honors along the way. He finished third among Cubs minor leaguers with 18 home runs despite not making his season debut until June 13.