Cubs designate former All-Star reliever for assignment

The Cubs have announced to reporters, including Bruce Levine of 670 The Score, that right-hander Shane Greene has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to left-hander Luke Little, who was reported earlier to be coming up.

It’s a quick turnaround for Greene, 34, who was just selected to the roster a week ago. He pitched one scoreless inning on Sunday but will now relinquish his roster spot to Little as the club looks to strengthen its left-handed relief corps.

Prior to coming up to the big leagues, Greene was stretched out in the minors, an interesting development since he has primarily been a reliever for most of his big league career. He tossed 16 2/3 innings over five Triple-A starts, going as long as five innings in his penultimate outing there. He had a 2.21 earned run average in those, striking out 27.9% of hitters while walking 10.5%.

The Cubs will place him on waivers in the coming days. He’s made 344 career appearances at the major league level, with inconsistent results. He finished three separate seasons with an ERA at 2.67 or below but saw that shoot up to 7.23 in 2021. He was only able to make two appearances last year and one so far this year. He’ll see if any club is willing to give him a roster spot in the coming days, though he won’t be postseason eligible for that club since it’s after the September 1 cutoff.