The Chicago Cubs will use Four Winds Field as a training site for the parent club for the 2020 season. Shown is Yu Darvish making a rehab start in South Bend in 2018. InkFreeNews file photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

SOUTH BEND – Four Winds Field has been relatively quiet this season. Sure, it’s hosted some youth baseball games and random community events. Business will pick up really soon.

The home of the South Bend Cubs was selected Sunday to serve the Chicago Cubs to house its “taxi squad”. With Major League Baseball aiming for a start on July 23rd, teams are having to scramble to reassemble and prepare for a 60-game season.

Four Winds Field’s proximity to Chicago, just a 95-mile drive to the Friendly Confines, will be the site for the team’s “taxi squad”, serving as the minor league talent pool for the teams to pluck from as it needs during the abbreviated season. South Bend has been a preferred destination for several of the parent club’s rehabilitation assignments, including Yu Darvish, Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist and Dexter Fowler among others.

The Chicago Cubs released its list of 50 players to its active roster for the 2020 season, which includes the players it will bring to its summer camp at Wrigley Field and sending to South Bend for the taxi squad. Among the 39 for the summer camp roster include all of its regulars like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez, plus 20 pitchers. The South Bend designees include top prospects Brailyn Marquez, Brennen Davis and Miguel Amaya, all South Bend Cubs veterans.

The South Bend Cubs and Chicago Cubs announced only essential personnel will be allowed at the training camps. No outside fans or press will be granted permission to the sessions.