Cubs Acquire Lefty Reliever Josh Osich from Red Sox for PTBNL

As first reported by Jon Heyman after being rumored elsewhere, the Cubs have acquired lefty reliever Josh Osich from the Red Sox for a player to be named later. This comes shortly after they traded for southpaw Andrew Chafin, also for a PTBNL, so Theo Epstein really made good on his word when it came to their deadline priorities.

Cubs get Osich for PTBNL from Red Sox

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 31, 2020

The 31-year-old Osich won’t be a free agent until 2023 and still has a minor-league option available, so he gives the Cubs a little more flexibility than Chafin. He’s also healthy and has put up much better numbers to this point in the season. Yes, even with a 5.74 ERA and a very gaudy six homers allowed in just 15.2 innings.

Almost all the damage came in back-to-back outings in which Osich was clearly not at his best and was forced to work multiple innings for the hapless Red Sox. Take away those two awful games and he’s only allowed three earned runs on 11 hits with just one homer among them. The big keys here are that Osich can work multiple innings and doesn’t walk many batters.

He’s also held lefties to a .211 career batting average with a .664 career OPS, though there’s no longer room for LOOGYs and righties have an .892 OPS against Osich. Cool. Perhaps a change of scenery will do him some good.