Hong-Chih Kuo Signed By Cubs

Now, he has another shot at returning to the major leagues:

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We don’t care about the second note. The story, obviously, is Kuo’s release. His performance in Arizona was downright terrible. Over six Cactus League outings, he retired 20 batters while putting 20 batters on base. He surrendered five dingers and 14 runs, which is among the highest runs-allowed totals in baseball. That’s really bad, given that Kuo is a short reliever.

(1) Kuo’s performance was terrible

Oh, and after the season he had his fifth elbow surgery. You don’t see a lot of year-to-year swings quite like that. But if a pitcher is looking to get his career back on track, there’s almost no place better than Safeco Field. From Dylan Hernandez:

Los Angeles Dodgers lefthanded reliever Hong-Chih Kuo, who went on the disabled list with an anxiety disorder termed the “yips” over a month ago, was activated for Sunday’s game against the Astros, per the Dodgers’ official Twitter feed.

SB Nation’s Dodgers blog True Blue LA reports that Kuo had a successful rehab assignment:

I’m told Kuo’s issue is psychological. Related to the yips he had a couple of years ago.

Kuo took advice from his teammates and coaches. He talked to two sports psychologists. He was sent to the Dodgers’ spring-training facility, where he once misfired a pitch and drilled a trainer in the neck during a bullpen session. The trainer was at least 30 yards away, walking across an adjacent practice field.It’s a rough story for one of last season’s best relievers, and it explains why Mattingly wasn’t exactly sure how to phrase what was going on. No one really knows what’s going on.

Wait, what? And then later from Hernandez...

Are you expecting Kuo to return this year? Mattingly: “it’s hard for me to answer that.“This has turned into a bit of a curiosity. Kuo had just returned from a back injury, though his minor-league rehab stints weren’t the most effective outings in the world. It gets even creepier with another Dylan Hernandez tweet:

That baseball source was actually True Blue LA’s Eric Stephen, who also noted that Hawksworth will become the 11th Dodger to go on the disabled list this season.