Cubs optioned RHP Mitch Atkins, RHP Justin Berg and RHP Jeff Stevens to Triple-A Iowa; optioned RHP Marcos Mateo to Double-A Tennessee; reassigned C Welington Castillo, INF Darwin Barney, INF Luis Rivas, OF Doug Deeds and OF Jason Dubois to minor league camp.
Assuming that Jeff Samardzija and Aaron Heilman head to the bullpen, Atkins will be one of the top fallbacks for the rotation at the beginning of the year. He gave up seven runs in seven innings this spring, but he had an 8/1 K/BB ratio in the process. Stevens, a reliever picked up in the Mark DeRosa deal, allowed eight runs -- six earned -- in 6 2/3 innings. |