Manny Rodríguez, Anthony Kay Outrighted to Iowa After Clearing Waivers

The Cubs made a pair of recent roster moves, designating lefty Anthony Kay for assignment to clear a roster spot for Trey Mancini and DFA’ing Manny Rodríguez to add former Blue Jays righty Julian Merryweather. According to the MiLB transaction log, both Kay and Rodríguez have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Iowa. Neither can reject the assignment, so the Cubs have effectively added (or maintained) solid bullpen depth.

Rodríguez has flashed upper-90s stuff and looks nasty at times, plus he is only 26 and should have a lot of throws left in that arm. His velo was down last year, however, and he had all kinds of trouble missing bats while also struggling to throw strikes.

Kay, who was picked up from the Jays in late December, will turn 28 in March and has logged 70.2 total innings over 28 MLB appearances in several different stints. Armed with a mid-90s fastball, a slider, and a rarely-used curve, the southpaw has put up strong strikeout numbers with walk totals that leave a bit to be desired.

The Cubs are light on lefty relievers and still have only Brandon Hughes on the big league roster, so Kay has a legit shot to earn his way back onto the roster. He will have to beat out another former Blue Jay to do it, though, as the Cubs also signed lefty Ryan Borucki to a minor league deal with (I think) a camp invite.