Zack Short traded by Cubs to Tigers
The Kingston High graduate was assigned to Detroit’s alternate training site
Kingston High School graduate Zack Short’s journey to the big leagues will be taking a detour to the Motor City.
Short, a minor league infielder in the Chicago Cubs farm system, was traded Monday minutes before the trading deadline to the Detroit Tigers for outfielder Cameron Maybin, the Tigers announced in a tweet.
Short, 25, was assigned to the Tigers’ alternate training site in Toledo, Ohio, where Detroit has its Triple-A minor league team. Minor league teams aren’t playing this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2013 Kingston High graduate was drafted by the Cubs in the 17th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft after his junior year at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
That summer, he played with the Rookie League Arizona Cubs, then the Eugene (Ore.) Emeralds in the Northwest League.
In 2017, he was promoted to the advanced Class A Myrtle Beach (S.C.), Pelicans, where he hit .263 with six homers and 21 RBI in 65 games. He was promoted again, in 2018, to the Class AA Tennessee Smokies. He played in 124 games with Tennessee that season, batting .227.
Short was assigned to the TripleA Iowa Cubs in 2019. Six games into the season, he was hit by a pitch that broke the ring finger on his left (glove) hand.
The injury sidelined him for 10 weeks. After rehabbing at the Cubs’ Mesa, Ariz., complex for a month, he spent a week with the Tennessee Smokies before finally rejoining Iowa on July 5.
After missing nearly 80 games,
he struggled. He hit .235 overall for the year and .211 in 41 games in Triple-A.
Despite the injury, the Cubs added him to their 40man roster last November.
When Major League Baseball suspended play because of the pandemic in March, Short remained at the Cubs’ complex in Mesa.
“They sent a bunch of minor leaguers home but, being on the 40-man, they gave you an option if you wanted to stay or go,” Short said at the time. “They advised you to go home, but being here we can work at the facility and I wouldn’t have that luxury at home.
“I just feel better off out here than travelling. Obviously, New York is not the greatest spot right now. I would rather stay here,” Short added.
In four minor-league seasons, Short has a .241 batting average and a .405 slugging average to go along with 37 homers and 162 runs batted in. He played mostly at second base and shortstop last season.
Maybin was hitting .244 with a homer and two RBIs in 41 at bats for the Tigers.