{"id":160808,"date":"2025-09-22T05:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T05:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160808\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T05:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T05:57:07","slug":"cubs-designate-nate-pearson-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160808\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Designate Nate Pearson For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs designated Nate Pearson<\/a> for assignment, according to the right-hander\u2019s official MLB.com profile page<\/a>.\u00a0 The move clears a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Eli Morgan<\/a>, who was activated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Iowa.<\/p>\n

Pearson first joined the Cubs in a trade from the Blue Jays at the 2024 deadline, and he seemed to benefit from the change of scenery.\u00a0 After posting a 5.63 ERA in 40 innings for Toronto prior to the deal, Pearson stabilized things and posted a 2.73 ERA across 26 1\/3 innings for the Cubs.\u00a0 Even though the secondary metrics had a less-favorable view of Pearson\u2019s performance, it looked like he had earned himself a spot in Chicago\u2019s bullpen picture for 2025.<\/p>\n

However, Pearson got off to a rocky start and found himself optioned back to Triple-A by the middle of April.\u00a0 He has been recalled and optioned down a couple of more times since, with the end result of an ugly 9.20 ERA and more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven) over 14 2\/3 innings in the Show.\u00a0 Pearson\u2019s numbers in Iowa have been considerably better, yet even his 2.22 ERA and 30.6% strikeout rate over 44 2\/3 Triple-A frames have come with the red flag of a 12.9% walk rate.<\/p>\n

Walks have been a persistent issue throughout Pearson\u2019s career, and his seemingly improved control in 2024 may have proven to be a mirage based on his 2025 numbers.\u00a0 He has also had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard, as Pearson has allowed 28 home runs over his 156 2\/3 career innings in the majors.\u00a0 Formerly one of baseball\u2019s top pitching prospects during his time in the Jays\u2019 farm system, Pearson battled injuries while in the minors, and a move to relief pitching still hasn\u2019t allowed him to find a niche on a Major League roster.<\/p>\n

Pearson has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, so between that team control and his past prospect pedigree, there is a chance he might get claimed as a reclamation project.\u00a0 Since the 29-year-old has more than three years of MLB service time, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming he clears waivers.\u00a0 It seems probable that the Cubs might just release Pearson if he clears waivers \u2014 since he is a clear non-tender candidate anyway, an early release would give Pearson an early jump on the offseason free agent market.<\/p>\n

Morgan posted a 12.27 ERA over 7 1\/3 innings before his season was all but erased by an inflamed ulnar nerve in his throwing arm.\u00a0 The righty\u2019s last MLB appearance was on April 14, and a setback during a minor league rehab assignment in June pushed his clock back even further.<\/p>\n

Finally returning to the mound in August, Morgan has looked quite sharp in posting a 1.69 ERA over 10 2\/3 innings with the Cubs\u2019 high-A and Triple-A affiliates.\u00a0 With his 30-day rehab window over, he is now back on the 40-man roster and continuing his rehab work in Iowa, and it is unclear if he might get another look in the majors before 2025 is over.\u00a0 Given his long layoff, it seems unlikely that Morgan would factor into Chicago\u2019s playoff roster plans unless other pitchers get hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs designated Nate Pearson for assignment, according to the right-hander\u2019s official MLB.com profile page.\u00a0 The move clears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,83628,462,42958,82],"class_list":["post-160808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-eli-morgan","tag-mlb","tag-nate-pearson","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}