Cubs place catcher Miguel Amaya on the 10-day IL and bring up Owen Caissie from Triple-A Iowa

TORONTO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs placed catcher Miguel Amaya on the 10-day injured list on Thursday and brought up top prospect Owen Caissie from Triple-A Iowa.

Amaya sprained his left ankle in the eighth inning of Wednesday night's 4-1 victory over the Blue Jays. His foot landed awkwardly at the front of first base on an infield single, and he was carted off the field.

The 26-year-old Amaya was just reinstated from the IL on Tuesday after he had been sidelined since May 25 because of a left oblique strain. He is batting .281 with four homers and 25 RBIs in 28 games this season.

“He’s disappointed,” manager Craig Counsell said of Amaya. “You spend two months on an injury, get back involved with a team that’s got a chance to accomplish some fun things, and you get one day and it’s over again.”

Caissie made his major league debut in a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays, batting fifth while serving as the designated hitter. The 23-year-old Caissie was born in Burlington, Ontario, just outside of Toronto.

Caissie arrived at the stadium about 90 minutes before game time. He went 0 for 4 with a ninth-inning strikeout.

He nearly picked up a hit in his first at-bat in the second, but Davis Schneider made an outstanding catch on the rookie's liner to left.

“It’s a welcome-to-the-league moment, I guess,” Caissie said.

Caissie is the first Canadian player to make his debut in Canada since Josh Naylor for San Diego on May 24, 2019.

“It was surreal,” Caissie said of debuting so close to home. “I'm just super thankful that the Cubs could make my debut happen in front of the Canadian people that I cherish so much.”

Caissie's parents were among a large group of family and friends who attended the game.

“It means everything,” an emotional Caissie said of having his parents at his debut. “They supported me a lot. They just sacrificed pretty much everything for me. They did so much.”

Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd, who was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013, also made his big league debut in Toronto.

“I can't imagine the whirlwind that this day was for him,” Boyd said. “He handled himself like a pro.”

Caissie is batting .289 with 22 homers and 52 RBIs in 93 games with Iowa this season. He has been particularly good in August, hitting .393 (11 for 28) with two homers and five RBIs.

“I don’t know that this is going to be a big role for Owen, but I think we’re kind of just looking at where we’re going in this schedule, and just being a little more flexible in terms of whether we need to get guys some rest, get the guys to get the innings off,” Counsell said.

Caissie was selected by San Diego in the second round of the 2020 amateur draft. He was traded to Chicago in the Yu Darvish deal in December 2020.

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Chicago Cubs' Owen Caissie (19) warms up before taking on the Toronto Blue Jays in a baseball game, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Toronto. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Chicago Cubs' Owen Caissie (19), making his major league debut, flies out against the Toronto Blue Jays during a baseball game, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Toronto. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Chicago Cubs' Owen Caissie (19), making his major league debut, flies out against the Toronto Blue Jays during a baseball game, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Toronto. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya (9) is tended to by medical staff and leaves the game during eighth inning MLB baseball action against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation on Saturday sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland of their support following President Donald Trump's threat to punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. taking over the strategic Arctic island.

Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said the current rhetoric around Greenland is causing concern across the Danish kingdom. He said he wants to de-escalate the situation.

“I hope that the people of the Kingdom of Denmark do not abandon their faith in the American people,” Coons said in Copenhagen, adding that the U.S. has respect for Denmark and NATO “for all we’ve done together.”

Meanwhile, thousands of people marched through Copenhagen, many of them carrying Greenland’s flag, on Saturday afternoon in support of the self-governing island. Others held signs with slogans like “Make America Smart Again” and “Hands Off.” Another rally was planned in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital,

Coons' comments contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.

“There are no current security threats to Greenland,” Coons said.

Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”

During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

“I may do that for Greenland, too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said.

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.

European leaders have insisted it is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.

“There is almost no better ally to the United States than Denmark,” Coons said. “If we do things that cause Danes to question whether we can be counted on as a NATO ally, why would any other country seek to be our ally or believe in our representations?”

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Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

People march during a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Icicles hang from the roof of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Danish serviceman walks in front of Joint Arctic Command center in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Senator Chris Coons from the Democratic Party speaks during a press conference with the American delegation, consisting of senators and members of the House of Representatives, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)