Cubs send ’16 World Series star Schwarber to Triple-A
The Chicago Cubs are hoping a stint in the minors will help Kyle Schwarber find his swing again.
Schwarber, 24, was sent to Triple-A Iowa on Thursday, giving the slumping left fielder a chance to catch his breath after a difficult start to the season.
“We talked to him after the game yesterday and he took it really well,” manager Joe Maddon said. “We’re doing it to help reset him and get him back to a fresh start. As you would expect he was very professional about it. He understood it entirely.”
The Cubs also placed outfielder Jason Heyward on the 10-day disabled list with an abrasion on his left hand before their series opener at Miami. Outfielder Mark Zagunis and right-hander Dylan Floro were brought up from Chicago’s top farm club.
Schwarber made his major-league debut in 2015 and hit .246 with 16 homers and 43 RBIs in 69 games. He missed most of last season with a leg injury after a frightening outfield collision, then returned in October to help the Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.
But the No. 4 pick in the 2014 amateur draft has struggled so far this year. He is batting just .171 with 12 homers and 28 RBIs.
“None of us saw this coming,” Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said Thursday on WSCR radio. “He was looking more like a slugger than a hitter. … We want him to come back as a hitter.
“We have zero doubt that this will be good for him.”
Schwarber isn’t the only player from last year’s championship club who has underperformed. Chicago is 37-35 after beating the Miami Marlins on Thursday. Jeter can’t afford Marlins yet: Derek Jeter told Major League Baseball that he doesn’t yet have the necessary money to buy the Marlins and is still seeking help from other investors, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
The person said Jeter, a 14-time All-Star shortstop with the New York Yankees, met with MLB and Marlins officials in New York and provided an update on his efforts to raise the needed money. The person said other groups remain in the mix to purchase the team.
Jeter’s group bid about $1.3 billion to buy the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria. A similar bid was submitted by a group led by Massachusetts businessman Tagg Romney, son of former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Jeter continued his pursuit of the franchise after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropped out of his group. The commissioner’s office wants the purchasing group to demonstrate it has enough cash both to close the deal and operate the team. Briefly: Infielder Pavin Smith, the seventh overall pick in this year’s amateur draft, agreed to a minor-league contract with the Diamondbacks that includes a signing bonus of $5,016,300. Smith, 21, whose bonus matched the slot value, hit .342 with 13 home runs and a school-record 77 RBIs in 59 games as a junior at Virginia this year . ... Reliever Huston Street was activated by the Angels after recovering from a strained muscle in his back that had sidelined him since spring training.