The Cubs catcher will be out for a while.
Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya suffered an oblique injury in Saturday’s game against the Reds.
It happened on this play [VIDEO].
It’s not known how long Amaya will be out. Manager Craig Counsell said Amaya will have imaging done in Chicago Tuesday and then the team will know more.
So Amaya has been placed on the 10-day injured list and catcher Reese McGuire has been selected from Triple-A Iowa and will join the team for Sunday’s game in Cincinnati. It was convenient that the I-Cubs were playing in Columbus, only about 100 miles from Cincinnati, so it was easy for McGuire to get there.
Amaya was having a very good year before the injury. In 26 games he is batting .286/.320/.516 (26-for-91) with nine doubles and four home runs, and he and Carson Kelly were basically splitting playing time. Of the Cubs’ 52 games through Saturday, Kelly started 27 and Amaya 25.
McGuire has played 355 MLB games in seven seasons with the Blue Jays, White Sox and Red Sox, and overall batted .252/.300/.364 with 16 home runs in 942 at-bats. He’s decent at throwing out runners trying to steal (27.4 percent lifetime). The Cubs signed him to a minor-league deal in January. He began the season at Iowa, was released May 16 (likely due to an opt-out clause), but returned to the organization May 22.
Overall with Iowa, McGuire batted .280/.360/.467 (21-for-75) with five doubles and three home runs.
What’s likely to happen until Amaya comes back is that Kelly will catch the bulk of the games and McGuire will start once or twice a week. He seems perfectly well-suited for that role, having done it with several other teams.
The Cubs’ 40-man roster is now full. There was no 40-man move needed to add McGuire, as there had been a spot opened up when Matt Shaw was recalled. Nicky Lopez was DFA at the time, but since Shaw was already on the 40-man, that opened the spot.
Today’s BCB game preview will post at 10:30 a.m. CT.