Cubs outright recently acquired reliever

The Cubs sent lefty reliever Tom Cosgrove outright to Triple-A Iowa, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Aug. 31. Cosgrove was the 40-man roster casualty when the Cubs claimed Aaron Civale off waivers from the White Sox.

Chicago acquired Cosgrove from the Padres in the middle of April. He has spent most of the season in the minor leagues. The 29-year-old has made two big league appearances, allowing one run in four innings. The Manhattan University product has a 4.71 ERA across 42 frames with Iowa. Cosgrove has fanned a quarter of opponents but walked too many hitters, issuing free passes at a 14% clip.

Cosgrove pitched 51 1/3 innings of 1.75 ERA ball for San Diego two years ago. He hasn’t gotten much major league work since then. His Triple-A production over the past couple of seasons has been middling as he has struggled to throw strikes consistently. This is Cosgrove’s first career outright assignment. He doesn’t have the requisite service time to elect free agency, so he’ll stick with Iowa as non-roster bullpen depth for the rest of the season. Cosgrove will become a minor league free agent at year’s end if the Cubs don’t call him back up.