{"id":71176,"date":"2024-04-23T12:02:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=71176"},"modified":"2024-04-23T12:02:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:02:47","slug":"prospect-called-up-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/23\/prospect-called-up-cubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs To Call Up Top Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After getting 90 at-bats in 2023 at the big league level, former organizational top prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mervima01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Mervis<\/a> has been called up to the show by the Cubs on Tuesday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wesneha01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hayden Wesneski<\/a> will join the first baseman in the same move, with the corresponding transactions not being confirmed at this point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An update to this story: The Cubs are calling up Matt Mervis from Triple-A. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fLArGtyFUx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/fLArGtyFUx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tommy Birch (@TommyBirch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TommyBirch\/status\/1782788929432834427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>A Season Ago\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mervis got his first taste of action at the highest level early last summer in Chicago. The now 26-year-old didn\u2019t last long in the show, being sent down after 27 games. In his 99 career plate appearances, Mervis didn\u2019t perform all too well against big-league pitching. The left-handed hitting slugger hit .167 and slugged .289. This all came while he split time at first base and as the team\u2019s designated hitter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The struggles for Mervis came as a disappointment for Cub fans. His numbers that he posted in the Cubs Minor League system were extremely promising leading up to his call-up. This included the 36 home runs and 119 runs driven in that the former Duke Blue Devil produced across three levels in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lnJZpjIfy-I?si=hd3PXjECWLYYi9ol\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><b>Thus Far in Iowa\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the organization traded for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buschmi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-23_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Busch <\/a>from the Dodgers <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/01\/11\/cubs-acquire-busch-almonte\/\" target=\"_self\">back in January<\/a>, it was clear that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/19\/matt-mervis-produce-chicago-cubs\/\" target=\"_self\">Mervis might not have a clear path to big league playing time in 2024.<\/a> Not making the Opening Day roster as a bench bat, Mervis returned to Des Moines to start his season. In 18 games with the I-Cubs, the 2020 undrafted free agent has put together a decent showing in AAA. Mervis has a slash line of .288\/.402\/.606 to go along with his five homers, six doubles, and 13 runs driven in. He has spent 16 games at first base, with the other two coming as Iowa\u2019s designated hitter so far. Mervis sits with under 100 at-bats in Des Moines, but he looks comfortable at the plate per usual at the AAA level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Matt Mervis crushing a long ball is fitting for the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GreatClips?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@GreatClips<\/a> clip of the home stand from this past week \ud83d\udcaa <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7wloXj0dYs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7wloXj0dYs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IowaCubs\/status\/1782795901804728607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s unknown whether a Cub on the active roster is heading to the IL. A swap of bats could be on the table here as well. Either way, this could be one of the last chances Mervis receives at the big league level in Chicago. He also might not get consistent at-bats in his first Major League stint in 2024. He\u2019ll have to capitalize on any opportunities he can.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After getting 90 at-bats in 2023 at the big league level, former organizational top prospect Matt Mervis has been called up to the show by the Cubs on Tuesday. Hayden Wesneski will join the first baseman in the same move, with the corresponding transactions not being confirmed at this point.\u00a0 &nbsp; An update to this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":71186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[24,1071,35],"tags":[68,69,645],"class_list":["post-71176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-nl-central"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71176","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\/5007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}