{"id":26825,"date":"2019-11-24T09:58:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T14:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=26825"},"modified":"2019-11-24T09:58:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T14:58:10","slug":"jharel-cotton-to-cubs-for-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/11\/24\/jharel-cotton-to-cubs-for-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"Jharel Cotton to Chicago Cubs for Cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/Chicago Cubs team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> have acquired right-hand pitcher, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cottojh01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jharel Cotton<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> from the <a href=\"http:\/\/Oakland athletics team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a> for cash considerations. According to Jordan Bastian of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/jharel-cotton-traded-to-cubs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB.com<\/a>, &#8220;the Cubs are in the market for a variety of pitching depth this offseason and the organization has never hesitated to take on a high-upside reclamation project. That made Jharel Cotton a probable target for Chicago as soon as the A&#8217;s cut ties with the righty last week.&#8221; Cotton has not pitched in Major League Baseball since 2017, but there is some upside to the 27-year-old from the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n<h2>2016-2017 Seasons<\/h2>\n<p>Cotton made his MLB debut on September 7, 2016, earning the win against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-angels\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Angels<\/a>. He would make four more starts that season going 2-0 with a 2.15 ERA and 23 strikeouts over 29 1\/3 innings pitched.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, Cotton finish 9-10 with a 5.58 ERA and 105 strikeouts through 129 innings. His best outing was against the Kansas City Royals when he pitched seven innings giving up just two hits and striking out six. On an April 11, 2017 episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jevx-3FodR0\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB Tonight<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=martipe02,martipe03,martin013ped,martin014ped,martin015ped&amp;search=Pedro+Martinez&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Pedro Martinez<\/strong><\/a> compared Cotton to himself. Pedro compared himself to Cotton in pitch types including the way they both throw the change-up.<\/p>\n<h2>2018-2019 Seasons<\/h2>\n<p>Cotton underwent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnto01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tommy John<\/strong><\/a> surgery on March 18, 2018, ending his season.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, he pitched for High-A Stockton and Triple-A Las Vegas going 1-3 with a 7.16 ERA including 33 strikeouts and only 12 walks in 27 innings. Not super spectacular numbers, but enough to warrant consideration from the Cubs<\/p>\n<h2>2020 and Beyond<\/h2>\n<p>The Cubs have said they are looking for more pitching depth, and Cotton can provide this for them. Although it will probably not be as a starter, Cotton could get innings as a long reliever and spot starter. The first four spots in the pitching rotation are currently locked up by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lestejo01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jon Lester<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hendrky01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kyle Hendricks<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=quintjo01,quinta003jos&amp;search=Jose+Quintana&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jose Quintana<\/strong><\/a><strong>,<\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/darviyu01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Yu Darvish<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> The fifth spot could be earned this spring but will be contended with more experienced pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chatwty01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tyler Chatwood<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> The bullpen is not a lock either as there are more arms than spots and the Cubs are continuing to look to add depth. So Cotton will have to compete there as well. He does have some experience at the big league level which should help him and with new manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rossda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>David Ross<\/strong><\/a> everyone will have the opportunity to make a new impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Cubs have acquired right-hand pitcher, Jharel Cotton, from the Oakland Athletics for cash considerations. According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, &#8220;the Cubs are in the market for a variety of pitching depth this offseason and the organization has never hesitated to take on a high-upside reclamation project. That made Jharel Cotton a probable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3181,"featured_media":26829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[880],"class_list":["post-26825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","tag-jharel-cotton"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}