The Cubs have signed right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. and catcher Ali Sanchez to minor league deals, as announced yesterday by the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Iowa. Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register (X link) was the first to report that Edwards was working out with the Iowa pitching staff on Thursday.
Edwards is back for what is technically a third stint with the Cubs, after he opted out of his previous minor league deal with the club two weeks ago. After testing the market, Edwards now returns to a familiar environment to see if another MLB opportunity might yet emerge in the Wrigleyville bullpen, and it be assumed that his new minors pact probably has at least one opt-out clause.
A veteran of nine Major League seasons, Edwards posted a 3.69 ERA in 31 2/3 innings for the Nationals in an abbreviated 2023 campaign. Edwards didn’t pitch after June 19 due to a diagnosis of shoulder inflammation and later a stress fracture that developed in late August. The injury brought a sour end to what had been a pretty successful run in D.C., as Edwards revived his career with a 2.76 ERA over 62 innings for the Nats in 2022. The righty had mostly struggled in the previous three seasons, which hastened the end of his original run with the Cubs when Chicago traded him to the Padres at the 2019 trade deadline.
With Edwards bringing some bullpen depth to the Triple-A, Sanchez will do the same to the Cubs’ catching ranks. Yan Gomes and Miguel Amaya seem to be entrenched as the active roster’s catching duo, so Sanchez joins veteran Curt Casali in Iowa, and Joe Hudson (who signed a minors deal with Chicago in the offseason) has been moved to the Triple-A affiliate’s developmental list. This placement might be a way to keep Hudson sharp while the Cubs sort out their catching situation, or it could possibly hint that Hudson could eventually be the odd man out.
Sanchez signed a guaranteed big league contract with the Pirates in December, though Pittsburgh designated the catcher for assignment on Opening Day. Since Sanchez had previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to opt into free agency rather than accept Pittsburgh’s outright assignment to Triple-A, and the backstop indeed took the chance to re-enter the open market.
The Cubs are Sanchez’s sixth different organization in less than 38 months. His only MLB experience consists five games with the Mets in 2020 and two games with the 2021 Cardinals, as the catcher has otherwise bounced around as a depth option. While not really known for his bat, Sanchez has a respectable .275/.345/.402 slash line over 893 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level, though those numbers were boosted by a nice 2023 season with the Diamondbacks’ top affiliate in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.