Cubs Outright Tyler Austin

The Cubs sent first baseman Tyler Austin outright off their 40-man roster this week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Chicago’s offseason roster count drops to 34.

Austin signed a $1.25MM contract last December. The righty hitter had spent the previous six seasons with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan. Austin mashed in his final two NPB seasons and impressed Cubs evaluators enough to secure a big league deal. He was expected to compete for a platoon role to complement Michael Busch.

Those plans were unfortunately scuttled by a right knee injury. Austin required a debridement surgery to repair the patellar tendon in late February. He neither played in Spring Training nor during the…