Cubs add pitching depth in Rule 5 Draft
The Cubs are adding another arm to the pitching mix, selecting Gray Fenter from the Baltimore Orioles Triple-A roster in the Rule 5 Draft Thursday.
Fenter — who turns 25 in January — has never pitched above Class-A, but he posted some impressive numbers at that level in 2019. He went 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 123 strikeouts over 94.1 innings while working mostly as a starter.
The right-handed Fenter finished that year strong, striking out 13 batters in 6.1 scoreless innings in a postseason start for the Delmarva Shorebirds:
The Cubs selected Gray Fenter from the Orioles Triple-A roster.
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) December 10, 2020
Fenter had a 13 K playoff performance in Single-A Delmarva in 2019.pic.twitter.com/1urYrB9XPl
“We liked him a lot in 2019,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “He pitched in Low-A, but we really liked the stuff. We had consistently good reports him throughout his minor-league career.
“We liked the fact that he’s got an explosive fastball, has the ability to throw two different breaking balls with a slider and curveball and all the makeup stuff that we got on him was really positive.”
Fenter is listed at 6-foot, 200 pounds and was originally selected in the 7th round of the 2015 Amateur Draft by the Orioles.
The Cubs will pay $100,000 to the Orioles for Fenter and must keep him on the big-league roster for the entirety of the 2021 season.
Last year, the Cubs selected pitcher Trevor Megill from the Padres in the Rule 5 Draft. In the summer, they completed a separate deal with San Diego, allowing the Cubs to outright Megill from the 40-man roster and keep him in the minor league system.
Megill was on the Cubs’ 2020 summer camp roster and also spent time at the organization’s alternate site in South Bend.
In the minor-league phase of Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft, the Cubs selected right-handed pitchers Nicholas Padilla (Tampa Bay Rays) and Samuel Reyes (Pittsburgh Pirates). The Cubs also lost pitchers Jeffrey Passantino and Yunior Perez in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft.