Nelson Velazquez – Pic by Rich Biesterfeld

Let’s make this quick…

The Cubs picked up reliever Jose Cuas tonight from the Royals for OF Nelson Velazquez, a long time favorite of mine.

Cuas is 29 and a right-hander in his second season in the majors. He has a career 4.08 ERA and has 86 Ks in 79.1 innings. Bleacher Nation’s Bryan Smith describes his stuff in the tweet below.

As for Nelson, I am happy for him now getting a chance to play every day in Kansas City.

Nelson was at Iowa where he was hitting .253 with 16 HRs and 44 RBIs with an OPS of .802.

Nelson was drafted in the 5th round of the 2017 draft out of high school in Puerto Rico.