Cubs Promoting RHP Chris Flexen to Provide Depth
As first reported by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, the Cubs are promoting righty Chris Flexen from Triple-A Iowa. Signed to a minor league deal just after the start of camp, the 30-year-old had to be added to the big league roster by Thursday or he would have become a free agent. We foreshadowed this move a little over a week ago, noting that Flexen’s sterling performance in Iowa made him an intriguing internal option to provide depth in the majors.
As Rogers noted, this is not related to Shōta Imanaga leaving last night’s game with leg cramps. The staff ace is expected to make his next start, so no need to worry about anything there.
Flexen there to provide some length. He’s looking more like the guy from Seattle a few years ago. Unclear who he’s coming up for though it is NOT related to Shota Imanaga leaving with leg cramps last night. Could be added today or tomorrow. https://t.co/7gtBbXFewd
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) April 30, 2025
Since Flexen is not on either the 40-man or active rosters, the Cubs will need to clear a spot for him with at least one move. That isn’t immediately apparent, though the most likely scenario seems to be placing Javier Assad on the 60-day IL and optioning Tom Cosgrove. Assad recently suffered a setback in his rehab, leaving his April 22 start for Iowa after aggravating the oblique strain that kept him out all spring. A Grade 2 strain can take 5-8 weeks of recovery, plus ramp time, so 60 days might be on the optimistic side.
Cosgrove looked very good in two innings of work against the Pirates Tuesday night, but the Cubs already have two other lefties in the bullpen with Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz. Cosgrove is the only member of that trio with a minor league option remaining, and he’s going to be unavailable for at least one more game following his longest outing of the season.
Flexen has started all five of his appearances for Iowa, going 3-0 with a 1.16 ERA and 21 strikeouts to eight walks over 23.1 innings. He only went one inning in his latest appearance, however, which I believe may have been a function of rain in Louisville. The righty was scheduled to start on Thursday for the I-Cubs and could take the bump on Friday in Milwaukee, either in place of Ben Brown or as a piggyback starter in the likely event that Brown can’t go deep.
Rogers noted that a change to Flexen’s arm slot has contributed to his revamped performance after being statistically one of the worst pitchers in baseball for the White Sox last season. While public data on that change isn’t yet available, I can only assume he’s lowered his slot a little bit from what had been an extreme over-the-top angle. For context, Flexen’s 70-degree angle last year was six degrees higher than any other righty (Jeremiah Estrada) and five more than any lefty (José Alvarado).
Taking it a step further, Flexen’s average 68-degree arm angle is the highest among all qualified pitchers since the start of the 2021 season. So unless he’s gone even further to the extreme, we can only presume he’s shaved off a few degrees.
We will update this story as we have more information.
