Former Cubs pitcher Travis Wood wasn’t getting the job done out of the bullpen so Ned Yost moved him to the starting rotation. After an O.K. first start on July 2nd, Wood was pummeled for five runs in the second on his way to a loss in a 9-3 final to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
The Royals are the team suffering the most from the Cubs’ World Series hangover.
In the National League, Chicago was supposed to run away from the rest of the Central Division, but following their first World Series in 108 years with little time for hibernation and healing around that giddy city, the Cubbies were sleep walking through the first half. The three little bears the Royals acquired in the offseason are still in their mid-winter slumber.
The deals just haven’t panned out for GM Dayton Moore.
Jason Hammel went 33-22 in his three seasons with the Cubs with an ERA of 3.59. Signed as a free agent to bolster the starting rotation, Hammel has been a disappointing 4-8 with a 5.02 ERA and should have been a solid number three option behind Danny Duffy and Jason Vargas.
Statistically Wood is having his worst year in eight big league seasons with an ERA over six. He would have filled that gap (along with others) between starters and the 8th and 9th innings with Joakim Soria and Kelvin Herrera, but he couldn’t get the job done. Now Yost is scrambling with Wood in the starting rotation. The third piece of this puzzle, had Wood worked out, would have made the trade for Jorge Soler in exchange for Wade Davis look better.
However, Soler has bounced back and forth between K.C. and Triple A Omaha hitting .154 and dealing with injuries and Davis has 18 saves with the Cubs.
Those three roster moves have had negative impacts on the team.
On paper they looked like good deals, but if Moore didn’t pull the deal for Soler and still had Davis on the roster, sliding down Soria and Herrara to the 7th and 8th innings would helped make up for Wood’s deficiencies. Let’s not forget, Moore gave up on Greg Holland after he missed all of 2016. All he has done has become Colorado’s closer and racked up 29 saves.