Padres trade Rowan Wick to Cubs for minor league infielder

The Padres have traded another pitcher off their 40-man roster. Rowan Wick is headed to the Chicago Cubs for minor league infielder Jason Vosler as reported by Chicago Tribune beat writer Mark Gonzales:

Rowan Wick was claimed off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals in February 2018. Drafted as a catcher, the Cardinals converted him to a reliever. His cannon arm can touch the upper 90’s and he features a pretty nasty slider as well. Wick spent most of 2018 in AAA El Paso, finally getting his first MLB call-up on August 31st. In 8.1 innings with the big league team, he was touched up for six earned runs and notched seven strikeouts against one walk. To his credit, five of those runs came in mop-up duty in a 12-run blowout, so the overall stat line isn’t representative of his otherwise excellent work with the Padres.

Jason Vosler is a 25-year-old lefty hitter with experience at every infield post but has played third base primarily throughout his minor league career. He’s coming off a season where he hit a combined .251/.330/.467 for the Cubs’ AA & AAA affiliates.

Considering that the Padres were expected by many to be shedding players just to open roster space in preparation for the Rule 5 draft, the team has been remarkably productive in finding trade fits for these players. There’s still some time left before the deadline and at least one more spot that the team is likely to clear, so don’t be surprised to see another clever move in lieu of the boring old “Designated for Assignment” tag.