The Cubs have designated left-hander Ty Blach for assignment, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. His spot on the roster goes to fellow southpaw Caleb Thielbar, who has been reinstated from the injured list.
Blach signed a minor league deal with the Cubs last month and was selected to the big league roster Sunday. That marked his first time on a big league roster since 2024. The 35-year-old handled himself well, tossing three shutout innings yesterday against the Brewers. Blach allowed only one hit, didn’t walk anyone, and punched out two of the nine batters he faced. In addition to his three sharp big league innings, Blach has pitched well in four of his five appearances with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines. He has a 5.23 ERA overall in 20 2/3 innings there, though most of the damage against him came in one start that saw him tagged for six runs in 3 2/3 innings.
With yesterday’s Cubs appearance, Blach has now pitched in parts of eight big league seasons with four different teams. The majority of that experience came with the Giants, who drafted him out of Creighton with their fifth-round pick back in 2012. Blach tossed 299 1/3 frames of 4.36 ERA ball with San Francisco from 2016-18. He then made five starts for the 2019 Orioles and spent the 2022-24 seasons with the Rockies.
Since that solid Bay Area run back in ’16-’18, Blach has been hit hard, yielding a 6.76 ERA in 223 2/3 innings. Part of that stems from calling Coors Field his home for several years, of course, but Blach is also a soft-tossing lefty who’s never missed many bats and has to rely on weak contact and precise command. There’s not much margin for error with a pitch-to-contact lefty who’s sitting 89.8 mph with his sinker and pitching half his games at altitude. That said, Blach did average 91.1 mph on that sinker in yesterday’s appearance — right in line with his velocity from his early days with the Giants.
The Cubs have five days to trade Blach, place him on outright waivers or release him. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to accept an outright assignment with Chicago, though he also has the right to reject an outright in favor of free agency if he prefers that route.
Thielbar has missed nearly a month with a hamstring strain. The 39-year-old lefty had a terrific season with the Cubs in his age-38 campaign last year (2.64 ERA, 58 innings) and re-signed on a one-year, $4.5MM contract in free agency. He allowed three earned runs on six hits (two of them homers) and five walks with 11 strikeouts in 8 2/3 frames before hitting the injured list.
