The Cubs have placed right-hander Marcus Stroman on the 15-day injured list with right hip inflammation, retroactive to August 1, with Meghan Montemurro of The Chicago Tribune among those to relay the info. His roster spot will go to right-hander José Cuas, who was acquired from the Royals yesterday.
Stroman, 32, got off to a great start this year, as he carried a 2.28 earned run average after his start on June 20. With him succeeding and the club floundering, he became a popular trade candidate leading up to the deadline but their fortunes have flipped in recent weeks. Stroman has allowed 30 earned runs in 30 innings over his last seven starts as the Cubs have surged back into contention, eventually deciding to buy instead of sell. They held onto Stroman and Cody Bellinger, in addition to acquiring Jeimer Candelario.
Now the club will have to proceed with their postseason race without Stroman, at least for a little while. He told reporters today, including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, that he received a cortisone shot and the plan is for him to miss just one start. If he can get back to health and back to his previous form, that would obviously be a boon to the club.
For now, they will proceed with a rotation of Justin Steele, Drew Smyly, Jameson Taillon and Kyle Hendricks. They will need a fifth starter at some point, which could be Hayden Wesneski, though he’s been pitching out of the big league bullpen of late. Some of the other options on the 40-man roster include Ben Brown and Caleb Kilian. They are currently three games back in the National League Wild Card race.
Stroman is in the second season of a three-year deal that he signed with the Cubs prior to 2022. He can opt out of the final year of that pact, leaving $21MM on the table. If he returns healthy and effective, it should be an easy decision for him to turn that down and secure himself a larger guarantee on the open market this winter. If the issue were to linger into the offseason, that could perhaps change his calculus, though there’s been nothing to suggest that’s likely to be the case.
Ah the much needed phantom IL stint
What does Phantom Il mean?
You Suck List
Never liked Stroman’s inner strength or team spirit, always seems to be about him. Keep him Cubs. My guess is that no one wanted him at the trade deadline. and now he isn’t hip…
I hope you like the cheese cubbies, because now comes the whine…
Exactly right…. borderline headcase waiting for a place to happen. Not getting an extension, rightfully not getting one. And talking up loving the Cubs… just talk… to get an extension… and very likely will opt-out and look for another date other than the Cubs.
@baseballguy- Sounds more like projection than an actually clue to someone else’s situation.
As a Cub fan I pray he opts out , he gets waaaaay to much attention for what he is
Hellen Keller could’ve made that “guess” and the cheese , Curly. The “Whine”reference is as lame as a three legged horse.
Curly
Maybe Stroman was like that when he was younger, but he seems well liked by teammates now. He overachieved in the first third of season and underachieved in the second third of the season. Not a headcase, just he is a number two or three solid starter who was temporarily pitching like a Cy Young candidate. Maybe Cubs can add a player option for 2025 at 20-25 million to his current deal to entice him to stay. He is much better than Taillon or Smyly.
I don’t care about attention, I care about wins, era, whip and quality starts. Stroman is a solid number two or three starter. He is an asset to the club so long the contract is not too long.
Helen Keller jokes aren’t exactly new and fresh. And they aren’t funny.
Phantom IL A way to get him rest and allow the team to bring up another pitcher in the meantime.
Maybe an injury and maybe just needs rest, either way good move for team and good move for him.
Injury and an extremely painful one or he wouldn’t get a painful cortisone shot.
The Brewers put Rowdy Teliz on the “you suck, phantom list” before the all star break. Then he ran into a wall trying to make a catch in BP and busted off a nail and broke his finger close to a return. He must not have been ready yet and took the law into his own finger, I mean, hand
Have you ever had a cortisone shot? I am betting the answer is no because if you had, you would know that no one gets one unless the pain they are experiencing is extreme because a cortisone shot hurts like h.e.l.l.
Sometimes the level of ignorance on here is just mind boggling.
Or he’s had this issue for a while and it has bothered him in the last few starts, hence his drop in form?
That’s the most likely reason. Hip injuries typically don’t happen in a day unless there is some kind of a collision.
could be a legitimate injury, or this could be a way for the cubs to skip a couple spots in the rotation to try to get him on track without creating any drama.
What part of he had a cortisone shot do you not understand? They hurt like bleep and a doctor would lose his license for giving a corticosteroid without a serious condition.
Since Stroman hasn’t been pitching well for the last month I began wondering after his last couple starts if he’s injured in some way and trying to play through it. Glad it’s not his arm, but this is concerning.
I’m all for the cubs going for it this season even if the team isn’t elite, but one thing’s for sure, we are at our best with Stroman healthy and pitching to his capabilities. We need him to get right!!
It’s entirely possible that the hip problem was causing the high ERA.
I would say more likely that his ERA problem is causing his hip issue.
Since there are so many idiots on here saying that garbage I am going to copy and paste this answer.
What part of he had a cortisone shot do you not understand? They hurt like bleep and a doctor would lose his license for giving a corticosteroid without a serious condition.
I can’t believe the Cubs decided to not sell this deadline. This would have been someone else’s problem. Now their ace is out two weeks.
Justin Steele is fine (for now)
Steele, Hendricks and Tallion are pitching like Aces. Stroman and Smyly are more like flamingbagofpoop. See how I did that? LOL
Need to DFA Hendricks… He’s washed up.
If you’re going to quote me at least have the decency to get it right. I said trade not DFA. I said DFA Wisdom. Unless the Cubs re going to have a lot more C’s actually pitch against them.
Speaking of getting rid of Wisdom, Does anybody know if Perlaza can play 1B? He’s a SH who is hitting .300 in Iowa and would give the Cubs way more versatility than Wisdom and he can actually hit the ball. if he doesn’t they should be teaching him behind the scenes.
Cade Horton- 1st AA start, 4 innings, No runs, 6 K’s, No walks.
Nice
Lotta teams wanna squeak into the post season so they can get more ticket money and sell more crappy merch.
LOL, 5 people liked that comment? If he was injured and playing through it, they would have found it in the medical exam. No,it wouldn’t be someone else’s problem.
Problem is he wasn’t traded ton a contender and now he’s hurt. If he was any good he would have signed with a contender when he had a chance and he didn’t…Why?? Because he’s been a pain inthe butt wherever he has been. And you can Baba Booey that
If he comes back and they’re in first place it will just prove my point that the young P’s should of been in play much sooner. Now you’re looking at him PICKING UP his option for next year being a real possibility and roadblock.
“If he comes back and they’re in first place it will just prove my point that the young P’s should of been in play much sooner.”
And what will it prove if they aren’t?
Right, with his ERA north of 9 in July, the Cubs were definitely going to get three top 100 prospects for two months of Stroman. Facts
Its been at least 5 or 6 starts that he hasnt been good. Scouts see what we see. They wouldnt have gotten much if anything for him.
The Cubs got hot before the break or he and Bellinger would’ve been dealt. They would’ve gotten a good return on each of them. There was no one out there
I think right now the rotation is Steele Stroman Hendricks Taillon and Smyly, in that order.
Since hip issues do not start overnight without a collision happening they would have had to reveal the injury to any team they were trying to trade him to.
He should be commended for trying to gut it out for his team though injury, and willing them back into contention. By the time he returns the Cubs will be in first and he’ll get enough starts to tune up for a deep playoff run.
If you’re giving up 5 runs a start, gutting through it isn’t helping your team at all.
Gutting it out for Stroman is either pitching for a new contract (StroME), or faking cramps to avoid a fight you started with Pittsburgh. Either way, nothing that says team-first.
It’s entirely possible the high ERA caused the hip problem suddenly discovered, is more like it.
Since there are so many idiots on here saying that garbage I am going to copy and paste.
What part of he had a cortisone shot do you not understand? They hurt like bleep and a doctor would lose his license for giving a corticosteroid without a serious condition.
The Legendary I have no idea what is going on IL stretch. Classic.
Conspiracy theorist fodder!
Has he been hurt, thus explaining his suckage?
Has be pitched so badly, the Cubs decided to use the IL to give him a breather?
If he was hurt, did the team hide it until after the trade deadline so as to potentially explore trading him/damaged goods?
Or did they hide his injury to allow them better leverage in finding a replacement at the trade deadline (in which case, they failed miserably)?
Or are we to believe this injury appeared in the last 22 hours?
Hip injuries don’t appear overnight unless there is a collision.
A cortisone shot is not a first resort. You go through PT and other treatments before you are given a corticosteroid.
Stroman has been hurting for weeks and it’s been obvious in his mechanics. The hip issue has caused his drop in performance and the Cubs would have had to inform other teams of the injury in order tob trade him.
Quite a terrible human, though
As a Cubs fan, I thought they should have sold high on Stroman and Bellinger. They may have received strong returns for both, but we’ll never know now. The NL Central is certainly winnable this year and postseason baseball is a rarity in Chicago, so it’s commendable that some modest additions were made to see if the team could make the postseason in 2023. But I’m saying it’s unlikely.
I understand keeping Bellinger because of the QO but Stroman should’ve definitely been traded.
Dude, look at the returns teams got on their trades. I’m just disappointed the Cubs didn’t add another starting pitcher given how inconsistent Tallion, Smyly and Stroman have been lately. Seeing what the Rays gave up for Civale made me sick because that was the exact type of pitcher the Cubs should have targeted.
Cubs will make an honest effort to re-sign Bellinger next year, there was zero chance he was going to get moved. Stroman pitched poorly and the returns for rentals were poor as well, it wasn’t worth trading him away.
The Cubs are a good team, a solid team that, if they can over take the central, can make a run in the playoffs. Relief pitching didn’t get much help but the rotation is deep and if guys start firing on all cylinders, can pitch with anyone and they can hit off anyone.
maybe his hip has COVID
Player: I received a cortisone shot to help manage the pain I’ve been experiencing recently from the stresses playing professional baseball puts on my body. Clearly I am no longer able to maintain my previous level of excellence and was hurting the team by playing through the pain, so I’m taking some time off to try to get right.
MLBTR commenters: Haha, faker!
These comments remind me of something that happened some years ago.
A pitcher, whose name I can’t remember, was put on the DL (as they called it in the old days) for a neck injury.
After hearing this, his pitching coach said “must be from watching all those bombs he has been giving up.”
Off field injury. Probably.
Puts a tilt in the rotation
I’d go with Wesneski right now over Caleb Killing-us.
Killian has been the Cubs best Minor League Pitcher the last 2 months and has been pretty dominant. You can’t base an opinion on 2 emergency starts, Then you’d have to say Mervis is a bust after 1 month. That would be ridiculous.
I’m surprised by the level of hate being thrown around here towards Stro. Players play through injuries all the time. Unless a pitcher physically can’t throw the ball, they all will fight to stay on the mound. Almost every pitcher is like that. Giving people the benefit of doubt can go a long way in life. Besides, life’s too short for so much negativity. Here’s hoping he doesn’t need surgery.