Cubs acquire Felix Doubront from Red Sox

Felix Doubront made it clear that he wanted the Red Sox to either put him back into the starting rotation or trade him, and then he went out and had a terrible relief appearance that many took to mean he was trying to push a trade.

He got his wish, as Jon Morosi of FOXSports.com reports that the Red Sox have traded the left-hander to the Cubs for a player to be named later. Chicago’s brain trust of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer were in Boston when the Red Sox signed Doubront out of the Dominican Republic as a teenager.

He’s been a mess this season, but Doubront has generally been a decent third or fourth starter with a good strikeout rate and bad control. Combined during the previous two seasons he started 56 games with a 4.59 ERA and 306 strikeouts in 323 innings. He’s also under team control, so the Cubs may have filled a rotation spot for more than the second half.

Follow @AaronGleeman

Shohei Ohtani has essentially become the Angels’ designated Sunday starting pitcher, but Angels manager Mike Scioscia announced Thursday morning that the 23-year-old two-way Japanese star will be skipped in the rotation this weekend at Yankee Stadium for “workload management” purposes.

Ohtani is fine to continue hitting, so there’s no sense of any physical ailment.

This decision will rob us — and the Japanese media — of a showdown between Ohtani and countrymate Masahiro Tanaka. And for that we are rather devastated, but you can understand the Angels’ concerns about overuse.

Ohtani has registered a 3.35 ERA, 1.066 WHIP, and 52/14 K/BB ratio through his first 40 1/3 innings (seven starts) as a major league pitcher and he’s slashing .308/.364/.582 with six home runs and 19 RBI in 26 games as a part-time DH.