Today, the Chicago Cubs, along with teams from across the MLB league, submitted their first 60-man squad to resume spring training… but won’t they announce it today?
This is the early word:
Cubs are expected to announce their 60-person pool on Monday
– Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub), June 28, 2020
Many baseball teams have already announced their squad, but the Cubs (and Brewers (among others, possibly)) are choosing to wait until tomorrow.
I cannot immediately imagine the reason for this since the original list had to be completed and submitted today. Travel related? COVID-19 related tests? Related opt-out? Could be the last. On the other hand, I read that players can choose to opt out later. So it’s not necessarily that this is an indication that someone is on the fence and the Cubs are giving him another day. Then again once again, maybe the cubs don’t want to announce the list when they know someone is on the fence? Do you give this person a little mercy if they decide to unsubscribe and instead announce the list tomorrow without this name? I really don’t know what the rationale would be. This is all unknown water.
In any case. The names will come tomorrow if they don’t come out earlier.
Reminder: Players will either go to Wrigley Field for Spring Training Part 2 or South Bend for alternative training. The group in Wrigley Field is your presumed candidate for a job on the 30-man squad on the opening day, while the group in South Bend serves as the start of the alternative group from which the Cubs can later replace if necessary, and some youngsters can train and Offer game promotions for rehab players. It’s best to think of this site as your “little leagues” this year, as sad as it is.
Teams can add additional names to the list later (and later remove guys from the 60-man group, although you will need to go through normal channels to do so, if you try to remove a non-40-man player from your alternate site- Group risk losing this player, no matter what list the cubs have submitted, there are several ways to change it.
Maybe it will expire later today. I’ll share if so, but we can’t hear until tomorrow. Until then, Bryan is recording what he thinks the roster might look like.
.
