Eric Sogard, who arrived in Chicago Cubs camp in the spring with an opportunity to be part of a second base platoon, was designated for assignment Friday to make room for Matt Duffy to be reinstated from the injured list.
“When you don’t perform the way we need to perform, the veteran sometimes gets the raw end of the deal,” manager David Ross said of Sogard. “He’s done everything we asked. He’s been one of the (most professional) guys we’ve been around in the locker room. Brings a calming presence every single day, a good at-bat, there is contact in there.
“We had to make a tough decision, and that was the one.”
Sogard, 35, hit .249 with one home run and 12 RBIs in 169 at-bats. He may be remembered most for his role as a late-inning reliever when the Cubs were being blown out. Sogard made five appearances on the mound, including three during the 11-game losing streak that sank the 2021 season and turned team President Jed Hoyer from a potential buyer to a seller.
Sogard did not allow a run in four of those outings before giving up three runs on two home runs July 5 in a 13-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field. Ross said after it was not “embarrassing” for the Cubs to have to use Sogard so many times, pointing to an “extremely taxed” bullpen.
Sogard signed a minor-league deal in early March and competed in spring training with Nico Hoerner, David Bote and Ildemaro Vargas for playing time at second base. The Cubs surprisingly sent Hoerner, a first-round pick who came up in 2019, to the minors, leaving Bote and Sogard as the two second basemen.
While Sogard never got hot offensively, Hoerner proved to be a catalyst for the lineup after being called up April 22. The Cubs began to jell after a dreadful start, only to have Hoerner go on the IL with a hamstring strain in late May. Hoyer has said he didn’t regret the decision to demote Hoerner.
Sogard’s wife, Kaycee, made a stir early on by criticizing MLB’s COVID-19 protocols on Instagram, writing, “A few of the things MLB will not allow my husband to do unless he is fully vaccinated,” followed by a list of protocols she compiled.
Kaycee Sogard called the MLB policy “absolutely disgusting.”
The Cubs are one of seven teams that have not met MLB’s threshold of having 85% of Tier One personnel fully vaccinated to relax the protocols. Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward are the only two Cubs players to publicly reveal they would not get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Cubs also announced reliever Brad Wieck, on the IL since early July because of an irregular heartbeart, will undergo another ablation procedure at an undetermined time. Wieck had the same procedure done in 2020.
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