MESA, Ariz. — Edward Cabrera feels ready for the regular season.
Cabrera surrendered one run in 3 2/3 innings Thursday against the Seattle Mariners while striking out three and, perhaps most importantly, not walking a batter. He focused staying in the zone by telling catcher Carson Kelly to keep his glove targeted in the middle of the zone. Cabrera prefers his catchers not moving their mitt to the corners during spring to better help with preparation and practice for targeting his pitches within the zone.
Part of joining a new organization is learning to work with new catchers. Cabrera, acquired in a January trade with the Miami Marlins, gets a chance to continue honing his relationship with Miguel Amaya, who returned to camp Thursday after Team Panama was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic.
“Trying to stay on the same page, make sure that everything flows,” Cabrera said through an interpreter. “As a pitcher, it’s super important to have a good relationship with the catchers. It’s something that I’ve always focused on.”
Cubs make more roster cuts
The Cubs trimmed their big-league camp roster to 46 players Thursday with a series of moves.
Left-handers Luke Little and Ryan Rolison and outfielder Justin Dean were optioned to Triple-A Iowa. Right-hander Vince Velasquez, catchers Ariel Armas and Casey Opitz and outfielder Brett Bateman were assigned to minor-league camp.
Rolison was in the bullpen mix, but the Cubs want the lefty to work on the pitch-mix adjustments in Iowa that they started implementing in camp. He gives them bullpen depth to begin the season. Manager Craig Counsell was pleased by what the 28-year-old showed and believes he has a lot to build on and grow from, adding they knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“The normal part of getting into competition and maybe things not going perfectly and in a game doing really new things, there’s going to be some struggles with that, and then you’ve got to just compete and get people out and things like that,” Counsell said Thursday. “So that’s part we thought was going to happen in this process. But what we want him to continue is we introduce some things that can help him. He’s got to get comfortable with them, and he’s got to do them over and over again, essentially. And he’ll get better as he does that and he’s confident in that.”
Dean will get regular playing time at Triple A after showing his elite baserunning and defense this spring. Counsell noted those are important skills that could fit on the Cubs at some point this year. The Cubs want Velasquez, who has an opt-out in his minor-league deal at the end of spring training, building up into a starter workload, and there weren’t going to be enough innings over the final 13 days of camp for him to get adequate work in Cactus League games.
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Moisés Ballesteros getting plenty of spring reps behind the plate
The Cubs still firmly believe in Ballesteros’ ability to defensively handle playing catcher.
He would be their third catcher if remains on track to be part of the opening-day roster, leaving potentially limited regular opportunities behind Kelly and Amaya. Ballesteros needs more reps with only 2,499 2/3 innings behind the plate in his professional career, which includes one big-league start last year. He’s gotten five starts at catcher in Cactus League games this spring.
Ballesteros knows he doesn’t fit the prototypical body type and that his 5-foot-8, 195-pound frame might contribute to people not believing he can stick at the position.
That perception doesn’t deter him.
“Actually, it really motivates me,” Ballesteros said recently through an interpreter. “It motivates me to prove people wrong, prove to people that I can be a catcher, that I don’t just have the bat or I can just hit, that I’m also a catcher. So it actually motivates me to give them my absolute best, to be able to showcase that I can be both.”