It took less than a week to juggle the Cubs roster.
The Cubs still have a 13 pitcher heavy staff. Maddon used six pitchers last night so it seems that trend will continue.
One less catcher is one more position player: journeyman Mike Baxter is your newest AAAA replacement player. He can play outfield and first base. He was called up with Junior Lake to get the squad back up to five outfielders.
The biggest impact on trading Welington Castillo will be on catching: Miguel Montero will now have to catch more games and David Ross needs to stay healthy to be useful beyond Jon Lester's personal back stop.
Whether all these recent moves makes the Cubs a better team? Not really, since a lot of these moves have been to replace tired bullpen arms.
As it stands now, the significant moves have been:
1. Moving Travis Wood to the bullpen for T. Wada. In the overall scheme of things, this may be a wash and not an upgrade from the rotation standpoint, but some could consider Wood an upgrade over a Phil Coke.
2. Baxter to 5th outfield spot over Matt Szczur. Again, nothing special that Baxter brings to the bench.
So long as the core starters remain healthy, the Cubs can maintain their status quo in performance.
