Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Montero is headed to the disabled list with lower back tightness, the team announced on Thursday.
In a weird twist, there was a chance that he would have remained active for Thursday's game as a backup if Tim Federowicz could not make it from Triple-A Iowa in time.
"Just give him a chance to get this thing settled down and get back to normal. But I can absolutely tell from just talking to him that he is hurting," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Montero.
Veteran David Ross, in his last season, has been sharing time with Montero and will get most of the starts while Montero is out. Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Ross will start the next few games with Federowicz likely starting Saturday against Atlanta.
Montero's DL stint is retroactive to April 25, meaning he can return as soon as May 10. Maddon said he expects him to miss two weeks.
Montero, who is hitting .208 with one homer and six RBIs in 13 games this season, was a late scratch Tuesday.
Federowicz is a 28-year-old who was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2008 when Cubs president Theo Epstein was general manager there. He has played in 89 big league games with the Dodgers over four seasons. The Cubs signed him as a free agent in January.
The Cubs also have highly touted catching prospect Willson Contreras at Iowa, but Maddon said now is not the time to call him up.
"We had to make a choice and Federowicz is here for a reason," he said. He had a great spring training. You're looking at the overall development of Contreras. In your mind's eye if you're putting this whole thing together you're probably going to wait until the second half hopefully to get him involved here."
"You bring in a guy like Federowicz for a specific reason and a specific reason just popped up," he added.