Cubs Officially Sign Jake Marisnick, DFA Phillip Ervin

The Cubs officially agreed to terms with backup outfielder Jake Marisnick Saturday night on a deal reported to be worth $1.5 million. A bulk of that will come this season with the remainder coming as a buyout on a mutual option for 2022 that is really just a way to defer some of the salary.

Marisnick is essentially replacing Albert Almora Jr. as a light-hitting defensive specialist, but he’s actually put up better defensive numbers than Almora over the course of a career spent mostly with the Astros. Even better, he doesn’t have an emotional attachment to the manager and probably won’t be used to lead off or pinch run as often as his predecessor. A right-handed batter, Marisnick is slightly…