The Chicago Cubs have been quietly doing what the Cubs do best — picking up pieces nobody else wants and turning them into something useful. And their latest acquisition follows that exact blueprint to the letter.
While the bigger headlines swirl around trade deadline rumours and playoff positioning, Jed Hoyer slipped in another low key signing that barely made a ripple. But don’t sleep on this one.
The Backstory Nobody Was Talking About
Andrew Wantz has had one of those careers that reads like a proper baseball survival story. Four solid years with the Los Angeles Angels to start — 4.20 ERA across 120 major league innings, nothing flashy but respectable enough. Then 2024 arrived and everything unravelled. Struggled out of the gate, hurt his elbow, had surgery and got released all in the same year.
The Tampa Bay Rays picked him up on a two year minor league deal in January 2025 — one of those classic rehabilitation gambles that teams occasionally take on experienced arms. The idea being — fix him up, see what’s left and go from there.
It didn’t quite work out. A brutal 7.04 ERA across 23 innings at Triple-A and a sole big league appearance where he gave up five earned runs in less than two innings. The Rays designated him for assignment, he cleared waivers, elected free agency — and just like that the door opened for Chicago.
Why The Cubs Moved Quickly
Context matters here. The Cubs just lost Jameson Taillon to a hamstring injury, their rotation is already under pressure and the trade deadline is creeping closer by the day. Adding an experienced arm with genuine big league pedigree to the Triple-A roster for minimal cost is exactly the kind of depth move that contending teams make quietly and efficiently.
Wantz will report to Triple-A Iowa with the Cubs organisation — and if he can shake off the rust and rediscover something close to his pre injury form, he becomes a genuine option for Chicago’s bullpen later in the season.
The Bigger Picture For Chicago
This isn’t a signing that moves the needle dramatically on its own. Nobody is confusing Andrew Wantz for a blockbuster trade deadline acquisition. But that’s not what this is — this is organisational depth, bullpen insurance and a calculated low risk bet on an experienced arm that the league’s best team just threw away.
The Cubs have built their bullpen this way for years. Reclamation projects, waiver wire pickups, bounceback candidates — it’s a strategy that keeps delivering results even when nobody’s paying attention.
The American League leading Rays didn’t want him anymore. Chicago was right there with a minor league deal and an opportunity.
Whether Wantz can take that opportunity and run with it is the only question that matters now. ⚾🔥
