Cubs roster moves: Jordan Wicks, Miles Mastrobuoni added to active roster

Sept. 1 has traditionally been the day MLB rosters could expand past their April-to-August limit.

For many years, that limit was 25, but teams could in theory activate everyone on their 40-man roster. In practice, most teams worked with 30-35 active players.

With the recent CBA changes, teams now have active rosters of 26 players through Aug. 31, and can add only two players in September, for a 28-man limit.

In practice, this has changed the previous “give the kids a chance to play” September into a “let’s re-activate guys on the injured list” month.

Today, the Cubs did one of those things by activating lefthander Jordan Wicks from the 60-day injured list and placing him on the active roster. He’ll start this afternoon’s game against the Nationals in Washington. The Cubs have not yet announced a 40-man roster move to make room for Wicks, since he was not counted against the 40-man limit while on the 60-day IL. When that move is announced I’ll update this post.

Also added to the active roster today was Miles Mastrobuoni, recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Mastrobuoni has hit .200/.255/.233 for the Cubs this year in 98 plate appearances over 43 games. He also batted .218/.305/.329 with four home runs in 54 games at Iowa. He’ll likely serve as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement.