First baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin recently underwent a debridement procedure on the patellar tendon in his right knee, which will leave him sidelined for “months,” Cubs skipper Craig Counsell announced to the team’s beat this morning (link via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). That suggests he’ll be a 60-day IL candidate the next time Chicago needs a 40-man roster spot.
Austin, 34, has spent the past six seasons with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He originally signed in NPB after spending parts of four big league seasons with the Yankees, Twins, Giants and Brewers, during which he posted a .219/.292/.451 slash with 33 homers in 583 turns at the plate.
While Austin showed plenty of power over his relatively limited MLB tenure, he was far too prone to strikeouts, fanning in a grisly 36.9% of his career plate appearances in the majors. He’s radically cut down on his strikeouts in Japan and has been especially productive the past two seasons, combining for a .299/.370/.559 slash with a 10.3% walk rate against a 19.2% strikeout rate.
Clearly, Austin is not facing as strong of competition in NPB as he would in MLB, but it’s still a notably more encouraging strikeout rate. Even it can be reasonably expected to climb several points back in North American ball, it’s unlikely to practically double; Austin seems to have made some clear gains in terms of contact and pitch selection.
For now, the well-traveled veteran’s MLB comeback will be on hold. The Cubs signed him to a one-year, $1.25MM contract over the winter, putting him on the 40-man roster in the process. The hope was that he could spell Michael Busch against tough lefties after Busch hit just .207/.274/.368 in left-on-left matchups this past season (and .230/.295/.366 in his career). Austin also has plenty of corner outfield experience and could’ve made occasional appearances there or at designated hitter versus southpaws.
Perhaps that role will still be waiting for him when he’s sufficiently rehabbed this knee injury, but a firm timetable is tougher to ascertain. In the meantime, non-roster invitees like Chas McCormick, Dylan Carlson and Michael Conforto now stand a better chance of breaking camp with the club.
Counsell also revealed that lefty Jordan Wicks has been slowed by forearm inflammation, but the team has already ordered an MRI which did not show structural damage to the southpaw’s ulnar collateral ligament. It’s unclear when he’ll get into games.
The 26-year-old Wicks is a former first-round pick and top prospect but has been pushed way down the depth chart for the Cubs, who’ll open the season with Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in the rotation. Righty Colin Rea is back to hold down a swing role and could get the first crack at spot starts as needed. The Cubs also have Javier Assad and Ben Brown on the active roster, while ace Justin Steele should be back from last year’s UCL repair at some point in the season’s first few months, barring setbacks.
Wicks is somewhere around eighth or ninth on the rotation depth chart at the moment. He pitched only out of the bullpen in the majors last year (8 1/3 innings), and that role might give him a better crack at eventually carving out some staying power on the big league roster. He’s pitched 95 big league innings across the past three seasons and owns a lackluster 5.21 earned run average with a sub-par 18.5% strikeout rate but solid walk and ground-ball rates of 7.5% and 43%, respectively. He notched a 3.55 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate in 71 Triple-A frames last year (16 starts, four relief appearances).
