For a minute there, Vince Velasquez was back in the majors, which is all it takes for Phillies fans to start digging through the memory drawer. He’s one of those former Phillies who never quite disappears. He can spend years outside the MLB spotlight, resurface in a Cubs uniform for a moment, and still send everyone right back to that sixteen-strikeout masterpiece against the Padres in April 2016. Some players leave behind long legacies. Velasquez left behind one game so loud that it still follows him around a decade later.
Then, poof, he was gone again. The Cubs designated Velasquez for assignment on April 26, only two days after adding him to the active roster. The move came as Chicago shuffled its bullpen again, placing Riley Martin on the injured list while adding Yacksel Ríos and Charlie Barnes to the pitching staff, per Taylor McGregor of Marquee Sports Network.
#Cubs Roster Moves:
— Taylor McGregor (@Taylor_McGregor) April 26, 2026
- Riley Martin goes on the 15-day IL (retro 4/24) with left elbow inflammation
- Charlie Barnes recalled from Triple-A
- Yacksel Rios contract selected
- Vince Velasquez DFA’d
Former Phillies starter Vince Velasquez gets a harsh ending after clean Cubs outing
Honestly, this is the cruel part of the sport. Velasquez didn’t even pitch himself out of the job. He made one appearance, and he held up his end of the bargain. Against the Dodgers, he gave the Cubs 2 1/3 innings, allowed just one hit, and kept an earned run off the board. Chicago was already getting buried. The game had turned sideways, the bullpen needed someone to eat outs, and Velasquez did exactly that. It wasn’t glamorous, but for a depth arm called up in a pinch, it was the job description.
Still, roster construction doesn’t care about sentiment. For Phillies fans, this is where the story gets weirdly nostalgic. Velasquez was never the ace people wanted him to become in Philadelphia, but he was also never boring. He arrived with big stuff, big expectations, and volatility that could make one start feel like a huge breakthrough and the next feel like a personal test of patience.
The 16-strikeout shutout against San Diego in 2016 still lives as one of the stranger Phillies time capsules of the last decade. For one afternoon, Velasquez looked like the steal of the century.
The rest of his Phillies tenure never quite matched that dream, and that’s probably why he remains such a specific kind of Philadelphia baseball memory.
He’s been trying to fight his way back after Tommy John surgery in 2023. He had not pitched in the majors since his time with the Pirates that season, then signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in February and worked his way back through Triple-A Iowa. When Chicago needed emergency bullpen help, he finally got the call. Two days later, he was DFA’d again.
Maybe Velasquez catches on somewhere else. Teams are always desperate for arms, and he did enough in his brief Cubs cameo to at least remind clubs that he can still take the ball.
But this latest DFA hits as something smaller and sentimental for Phillies fans. It’s like finding an old ticket stub in a jacket pocket. You remember the good and the ugly. And then you remember baseball rarely lets those stories stay that simple.
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