Cubs Announce Minors Deal with Catcher Joe Hudson

The Cubs officially announced minor league deals with catchers Jorge Alfaro and Joe Hudson and lefty Thomas Pannone on Thursday, confirming previous reports. We haven’t covered the Hudson deal, so let’s go ahead and hit that now since there’s nothing else of note to write about. Sorry to those of you who are growing ever more frustrated with each new non-guaranteed move.

Hudson was originally drafted by the Reds in the sixth round out of Notre Dame back in 2012 and he spent nearly six seasons in their organization, making it as high as Triple-A. He’s since bounced around between the Angels, Cardinals, Mariners, Pirates, Rays, and Braves over the last six years. He made his MLB debut with the Angels in 2018 and made brief appearances with two other teams, logging a total of 33 plate appearances over 18 games.

The 32-year-old hasn’t played in the majors since 2020 and he carries a .223 career average with 56 homers over 2,516 career minor-league PAs. As such, this seems like nothing more than creating a little veteran depth at Mesa and maybe Iowa if Hudson sticks around.