Blue Jays claim Jose Cuas off waivers from Cubs

The Cubs announced this afternoon that the right-hander Jose Cuas was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays. Cuas was designated for assignment earlier this week to make room for righties Ethan Roberts on the club’s 40-man roster. The move puts Toronto’s 40-man roster at capacity.

Cuas, who will celebrate his 30th birthday later this week, made his big league debut with the Royals in 2022, but was traded to the Cubs in exchange for an outfielder. Nelson Velázquez at the trade deadline last summer. He was a good middle reliever for the Royals during his time in Kansas City, pitching to a 4.08 ERA (106 ERA+) with a 4.41 FIP in 79 1/3 innings of work for the club between campaigns. 2022 and 23. Unfortunately for Cuas and the Cubs, the wheels started to come off for the right-hander when he arrived in Chicago last year.

Although his 3.04 ERA in 27 appearances for the Cubs down the stretch last summer was actually pretty solid, it came with some concerning peripherals. His strikeout rate dropped from a solid 27.1% during his time with the Royals last year to a worrying 19% in Chicago, while his walk rate simultaneously climbed by a manageable figure of 10% in Kansas City up to 14% for the north. siders. While a strong ground ball rate of 55.6% allowed Cuas to minimize the damage, he was no longer looking for the role of a quality middle relief option.

Things took an even worse turn for Cuas in 2024 when his success rate dropped to just 31%. Although his walk rate has fallen to a career-high 9.2%, this is due at least in part to the fact that opposing hitters have been playing on Cuas’ pitches with a 14.3% barrel rate and a hard hit rate of 45.2%. Even though Cuas’ strikeout rate rose to a more acceptable 21.5% this year, it still wasn’t enough to stop the right-hander from allowing 12 runs (11 earned) in 13 1/3 of innings of work for the Cubs this year, leaving him with a 7.43 ERA and a 5.99 FIP.

Despite these deep struggles during his time in Chicago, it’s not hard to see why the Blue Jays would want to take a chance on the right-hander. After all, when Cuas’ arsenal is working well, his sinker/slider combo allows him to strike out about a quarter of the batters he faces while maintaining a walk rate of about 10 percent and getting grounders on about the half of his batted balls. That’s certainly the profile of a valuable pitcher, even if Cuas hasn’t yet been able to put it all together at the big league level during his career.

Even if he isn’t able to reach that potential, the right-hander still provides the Blue Jays with a minimum-salary option relief arm who can be moved from Triple-A to the majors if needed. That’s a valuable commodity for any bullpen, but especially for a Blue Jays bullpen that has posted a league-worst FIP ​​of 4.83 to this point in the 2024 campaign. was turning to Cuas at some point, he would likely factor into the middle relief mix alongside Zach Pop And Genesis Cabrera.