TORONTO (AP) The Chicago Cubs placed catcher Miguel Amaya on the 10-day injured list on Thursday and brought up top prospect Owen Caissie from Triple-A Iowa.
Amaya sprained his left ankle in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s 4-1 victory over the Blue Jays. His foot landed awkwardly at the front of first base on an infield single, and he was carted off the field.
The 26-year-old Amaya was just reinstated from the IL on Tuesday after he had been sidelined since May 25 because of a left oblique strain. He is batting .281 with four homers and 25 RBIs in 28 games this season.
“He’s disappointed,” manager Craig Counsell said of Amaya. “You spend two months on an injury, get back involved with a team that’s got a chance to accomplish some fun things, and you get one day and it’s over again.”
Caissie made his major league debut in a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays, batting fifth while serving as the designated hitter. The 23-year-old Caissie was born in Burlington, Ontario, just outside of Toronto.
Caissie arrived at the stadium about 90 minutes before game time. He went 0 for 4 with a ninth-inning strikeout.
He nearly picked up a hit in his first at-bat in the second, but Davis Schneider made an outstanding catch on the rookie’s liner to left.
“It’s a welcome-to-the-league moment, I guess,” Caissie said.
Caissie is the first Canadian player to make his debut in Canada since Josh Naylor for San Diego on May 24, 2019.
“It was surreal,” Caissie said of debuting so close to home. “I’m just super thankful that the Cubs could make my debut happen in front of the Canadian people that I cherish so much.”
Caissie’s parents were among a large group of family and friends who attended the game.
“It means everything,” an emotional Caissie said of having his parents at his debut. “They supported me a lot. They just sacrificed pretty much everything for me. They did so much.”
Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd, who was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013, also made his big league debut in Toronto.
“I can’t imagine the whirlwind that this day was for him,” Boyd said. “He handled himself like a pro.”
Caissie is batting .289 with 22 homers and 52 RBIs in 93 games with Iowa this season. He has been particularly good in August, hitting .393 (11 for 28) with two homers and five RBIs.
“I don’t know that this is going to be a big role for Owen, but I think we’re kind of just looking at where we’re going in this schedule, and just being a little more flexible in terms of whether we need to get guys some rest, get the guys to get the innings off,” Counsell said.
Caissie was selected by San Diego in the second round of the 2020 amateur draft. He was traded to Chicago in the Yu Darvish deal in December 2020.
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