Cubs add C Victor Caratini, OF Jacob Hannemann, LHP Jack Leathersich, RHP Duane Underwood Jr. to 40-Man Roster
Friday was the deadline for teams to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. The Cubs selected the contracts of C Victor Caratini, OF Jacob Hannemann, LHP Jack Leathersich and RHP Duane Underwood Jr. and those four players have been placed on the 40-man roster.
With Friday’s roster moves, the Cubs’ 40-man roster officially stands at 39 players.
Victor Caratini, 23, was named a mid-season and post-season Southern League All-Star in 2016 after batting .291 (120-for-412) with 25 doubles, six homers and 47 RBI in 115 games with Tennessee, his first ever stop at Double-A. He posted a .375 on-base percentage and a .405 slugging percentage, good for a .780 OPS.
The switch-hitter was acquired by the Cubs from Atlanta in the deal that sent Emilio Bonifacio and James Russell to the Braves on July 31, 2014. The six-foot-one, 215-pounder was selected by the Braves in the second round of the 2013 Draft (65th overall) out of Miami Dade College.
A native of Coamo, Puerto Rico, Caratini is a career .277/.364/.398/.762 hitter (383-for-1,381) with 101 doubles, 16 homers and 180 RBI in 386 minor league games covering the last four seasons.
Jacob Hannemann, 25, batted .247 (72-for-291) with 14 doubles, four triples, 10 homers, 30 RBI and 26 stolen bases in 74 games with Tennessee last year, his first full season at the Double-A level. He posted a .326 on-base percentage, 79 points higher than his batting average, and a .426 slugging percentage, good for a .752 OPS.
The left-handed batter and thrower has primarily played center field in his minor league career, seeing action in 275 games there in his first four seasons. Hannemann has also played 42 games in left field and 18 games in right field.
Hannemann was originally selected by the Cubs in the third round of the 2013 Draft out of Brigham Young University. He is a career .249/.311/.383/.695 hitter (334-for-1,344) with 66 doubles, 20 triples, 25 homers, 133 RBI and 91 stolen bases in 343 games covering four minor league campaigns.
Jack Leathersich, 26, was claimed by the Cubs off waivers from the New York Mets on Nov. 19, 2015 as he continued his recovery from Tommy John surgery in July of 2015. The lefty returned to the mound in June and went 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA (one earned run in eight innings) and 0.87 WHIP in 10 outings in rookie ball before joining Tennessee on July 22. Leathersich posted no record, a 3.48 ERA (four earned runs in 10 1/3 innings) and a 1.45 WHIP in 11 relief outings in Double-A before finishing the season with five relief appearances with Iowa, allowing no hits and no earned runs in five innings.
The six-foot, 205-pound Leathersich made his Major League debut with the Mets in 2015 and went 0-1 with a 2.31 ERA (three earned runs in 11 2/3 innings) and a 1.62 WHIP in 17 relief appearances that year. He struck out 14 in 11 2/3 innings and tossed scoreless ball in 14 of his 17 outings before requiring surgery at the end of July prior to being claimed by the Cubs.
Jack Leathersich was originally selected by the Mets in the fifth round of the 2011 Draft out of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. He is 10-9 with seven saves, a 3.38 ERA (88 earned runs in 234 innings) and a 1.31 WHIP in 186 appearances, all but one as a reliever, covering six seasons in the Mets and Cubs minor league systems.
Duane Underwood Jr., 22, was originally selected by the Cubs in the second round of the 2012 Draft and has gone 15-18 with a 3.40 ERA (119 earned runs in 315 innings) and a 1.30 WHIP in 75 minor league appearances, all but four as a starter. He entered the 2016 campaign ranked by Baseball America as the No. 4 prospect in the Cubs minor league system, while MLB.com ranked Underwood 78th on its list of Top 100 prospects in the game. He was a 2016 non-roster invitee to big league Spring Training.
The six-foot-two, 210-pound right-hander earned mid-season Carolina League All-Star honors in 2015 when he went 6-3 with a 2.58 ERA (21 earned runs in 73 innings) and a 1.03 WHIP in 14 starts. He was slowed by injuries in 2016 but reached the Double-A level for the first time. Underwood Jr. combined to go 0-6 with a 4.32 ERA (35 earned runs in 73 innings) and a 1.50 WHIP in 18 starts with four different teams in the Cubs system this past season (Rookie, Low-A, High-A, Double-A). He also made a pair of starts for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League. Underwood is a native of Raleigh, N.C.