Monday, the Cubs claimed a former tormentor, Billy Hamilton, on waivers from the New York Mets.
Tuesday, they have added Hamilton to the active roster and optioned (who knew he still had options?) Jose Martinez to the team’s alternate site in South Bend.
Martinez, too, used to torment the Cubs when with the Cardinals, but his tenure as Cubs DH has been a failure so far. Martinez went 0-for-14 with one walk in six games as a Cub. If he never plays for the Cubs again, that’s the third-most plate appearances (15) without a hit in franchise history among position players, and you have to go back more than a century for the others, George Moriarty in 1903-04 (20 PA) and Clem Clemens in 1916 (16 PA).