{"id":558393,"date":"2026-02-06T20:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558393\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:07:14","slug":"cubs-sign-vince-velasquez-owen-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558393\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Sign Vince Velasquez, Owen Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cubs have added another pair of veterans on minor league deals, agreeing to terms with righty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/velasvi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vince Velasquez<\/a> and infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/milleow01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Owen Miller<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/cubs\/roster\/transactions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the team\u2019s transaction log at MLB.com<\/a>. They\u2019ll likely be in camp as non-roster players. Velasquez is a CAA client, while Miller is represented by ALIGND Sports.<\/p>\n<p>Velasquez, 33, has pitched in parts of nine major league seasons in addition to some time with the Korea Baseball Organization\u2019s Lotte Giants in 2025. The 2010 second-round pick (Astros) was a well-regarded prospect prior to his 2015 debut and has at times shown the ability to pitch at the back of a big league rotation but has lacked consistency. In 763 2\/3 innings in the majors, he carries a 4.88 earned run average, a 24.9% strikeout rate, a 9.3% walk rate and a 35.4% ground-ball rate.<\/p>\n<p>Home runs have been Velasquez\u2019s primary undoing in the big leagues. He\u2019s served up an average of 1.48 homers per nine frames and seen just over 14% of the fly-balls he\u2019s allowed in his career leave the yard. That susceptibility has offset his otherwise decent rate stats.<\/p>\n<p>Velasquez\u2019s most recent MLB work came with the Pirates in 2023. He logged a solid 3.86 ERA in eight starts, the final two of which lasted only a combined five innings. The righty hit the injured list with elbow troubles shortly thereafter, and the Bucs announced in early June that he\u2019d require elbow surgery which would sideline him for around 11 months. Velasquez didn\u2019t pitch at all in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Guardians last offseason and was selected to the major league roster at the end of April, but Cleveland designated him for assignment just two days later, before he\u2019d pitched in a game. He was outrighted to Triple-A and eventually given his release so he could finish out the season in the KBO.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old Miller has suited up in parts of five big league seasons, primarily with Cleveland and Milwaukee. He briefly appeared in nine games for Colorado last season but tallied only 17 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>In 1032 plate appearances at the MLB level, Miller is a .238\/.287\/.342 hitter with 15 homers, 52 doubles, a triple, a 5.8% walk rate and a 21.3% strikeout rate. He\u2019s a right-handed hitter who\u2019s hit right-handed pitchers better than he has lefties throughout his time in the majors.<\/p>\n<p>Miller doesn\u2019t have a great track record in the majors, but he\u2019s posted a respectable .281\/.346\/.432 line in 1144 trips to the plate as a Triple-A player. He\u2019s also capable of playing all over the infield. Since being selected by the Padres in the third round of the 2018 draft, he\u2019s logged 1839 innings at second base, 1545 innings at shortstop, 1445 innings at first base and 942 innings at third base between the minors and majors. He\u2019s played all three outfield spots as well, albeit more sparingly, and even tossed two innings of mop-up relief for the \u201924 Brewers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs have added another pair of veterans on minor league deals, agreeing to terms with righty Vince&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,155,1895],"class_list":{"0":"post-558393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-owen-miller","10":"tag-vincent-velasquez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116025495133945179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}