TODAY: The Cubs officially reinstated Hendricks from the injured list this morning, and announced that right-hander Jose Cuas had been optioned to Triple-A Iowa in the corresponding move. Cuas, 30 next month, has struggled to a 9.00 ERA and 5.03 FIP in six appearances with the club this year.
May 11: The Cubs plan to activate right-hander Kyle Hendricks from the 15-day injured list tomorrow, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun Times) following tonight’s game. He’ll start tomorrow’s game against the Pirates opposite left-hander Bailey Falter. The Cubs will need to make space for Hendricks on the active roster prior to the game.
Right-hander Jameson Taillon was initially expected to start tomorrow’s game, but Counsell told reporters (as noted by Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) earlier today that the right-hander was dealing with a bout of back stiffness that cropped up during a bullpen session on Tuesday. While Counsell indicated after the game that Taillon’s bullpen session today went well, he nonetheless is “not quite ready” to start another game. With left-hander Shota Imanaga lined up to start Monday’s series opener in Atlanta, that would put Taillon in line to potentially take the ball opposite the Braves on Tuesday.
That Taillon won’t require another trip to the injured list is surely a relief for Cubs fans. The right-hander missed the first three weeks of the season with lower back and quad issues but has been excellent in four starts since being activated off the IL, with a 1.13 ERA and 3.52 FIP in 24 innings of work. On the other hand, it’s somewhat surprising to see Hendricks activated off the injured list so quickly. While the right-hander has been on a rehab assignment since the start of May, the club had previously indicated that the plan was for Hendricks to make a third rehab start this weekend before determining next steps. That plan now appears to have been scuttled in favor of Hendricks returning to the club’s rotation.
Rushing the veteran back into action at the big league level is a risky decision after his start to the season. The 34-year-old righty was placed on the injured list at the end of April due to a lower back issue of his own after making five starts, the results of which were nothing short of brutal. Hendricks has yet to record an out in the sixth inning in any of his appearances this season, and has completed the fifth inning just once while striking out just 15.1% of batters faced. While his 6.6% walk rate is more or less in line with his career norms, he’s allowed a whopping eight home runs this season en route to a ghastly 12.00 ERA and 7.72 FIP in 21 innings of work. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored Hendricks’s tough start in depth shortly before the club placed him on the IL last month.
Assuming Taillon is able to slot back into the club’s rotation next week and Hendricks will remain in the mix for starts for the time being, the Cubs figure to have an overflow of starting pitching options for their rotation at the moment. Right-hander Ben Brown has already moved into a bullpen role after starting four games for the club earlier this year, and lefty Jordan Wicks is currently on the injured list while nursing a forearm strain, but that still leaves Imanaga, Justin Steele, Javier Assad, and Hayden Wesneski in the mix for starts alongside Taillon and Hendricks, to say nothing of top prospect Cade Horton lurking at the Triple-A level.
Assuming an injury within that group doesn’t solve the logjam organically, the Cubs appear likely to either utilize a six-man rotation or simply move Wesneski to the bullpen, where he would pair with Brown to form a lethal multi-inning duo who could be used in a variety of roles to bolster a struggling relief corps. Assad also has relief experience on his resume, but it would be something of a shock to see the Cubs move the 26-year-old out of the rotation given sensational start to the season that’s seen him pitch to a 1.70 ERA in eight starts. It’s also possible that if Hendricks’s struggles continue the club could look to remove him from the rotation, although his lone relief appearance at the big league level came all the way back in 2016.
Maybe they shouldn’t
Cubs gave Kyle two weeks off on the Phantom IL to decompress and gather himself. He either comes back as a solid starter or he really is cooked, and another Phantom IL visit will be in the works.
He’s probably not their 8th best starter, i’d work him in relief.
Have him be the opener. Jamo should be fine. I rather they take a chance with Jamo than it have Hendricks get rocked for 7 more earned runs.
It’s time. Yes, I know all he’s done for the Cubs, but it’s time. They just need to DFA him. But obviously they won’t.
They won’t DFA a respected veteran. But this might not be his final trip to the IL this season. I don’t see how his arm would translate to a relief role. Hate it for him, always enjoyed watching him pitch at his peak. Very crafty. Maybe he’ll surprise us.
I expect the same type of transactional year for Hendricks as the Cubs did with Heyward.
They know they need to DFA him, they want to DFA him, but they have to save themselves from another PR standpoint.
16 million bucks. Enough said.
The time to move on was after last year. After the injury he pitched better than I thought he would. Now all you can hope for is he makes it back and pitches fairly decent at least if you root for the Cubs anyway. He’s going to have to be pretty horrible to be DFA’d in May with a 16 million dollar price tag. The money is already lost. You can only hope CC can manipulate his appearances to keep him from facing the elite hitting teams. Although I’m at a loss as to what that looks like.
Hendricks reminds me of long ago pitcher named dick tidrow. Pitched for what seemed like forever. Not that good, but good enough to hang around 10-15y in MLB and when thought he was gone? his name would flash up again.
Reborn again mr. hendricks.
Tidrow and Sutter were deadly in the 8th and 9th innings for awhile there.
Hopefully Ben Brown will be good for a couple of innings because Hendricks probably won’t too last long.
Brown pitched 3+ innings on Friday, so he’s probably going to come in after Taillon on Tuesday.
If either Hendricks or (when he gets back) Wicks can be serviceable in the #5 spot, Brown and Wesneski give them two guys who can each throw 20 IP/month in relief in 2-3 inning bursts. Add Horton in September although he will have limited innings left, and they might get by with having burnt kindling for a closer.
Connor Joe about to go off on Mother’s Day.
Connie Josephine is a major pita. It’s always the players that aren’t that good that seem to be the biggest Pitas(pain in the a$$)
Overrated skenes got punked
Wrong Cade Horton link above…..
Imanaga, Steele, Assad, Tallion, Wicks. Hendricks doesn’t belong there. Give him the mop up duties until he improves. Wesneski and Brown should get opportunities before him. I get they just pitched, so I hope this is just a timing issue and not a rotation decision.
Wicks probably should go down to AAA or the pen and work on being more aggressive in the zone. Walks and deep counts kill him, much like Steele two seasons ago.
Paul Skenes is good but Cubs weren’t overmatched, throws fast but maybe a wee bit overrated. I think he will be a closer
Cubs bullpen gives away another game unfortunately. I’m ready to give up on Thompson, the guy has completely lost his confidence. Talk to Edward’s agent and see if he will accept a split contract and get him up.
I don’t know what is up with/was up with Hendricks. He showed last season he could still pitch effectively but this season…. Yikes! I personally would pair him with Yan Gomes and not let him call his own pitches, just get him to concentrate on execution.
I don’t like Tauchman at the top of the line up. Now Suzuki is back, I’d bat Tauchman last. I like Tauchman but you don’t take at bats away from your most skilled hitter, which is Nico.
Dras…..Mother’s Day hangover or something? Tauchman is near the top or leads the majors in walk rate, OBP, pitches per at and you would bat him last??? It has been literally one game, and he did get on base three times.
Hoerner had led off, seriously, over the last 20 games and the Cubs were facing Skenes yesterday and I don’t think we should jump on a trend just yet.
I’m scanning the internet awaiting the Morel IL news—hoping we don’t have a two week repeat of a guy trying to play through a knee injury. And, might as well continue to light up the IL transaction wire.
And despite the recency bias—fans better get used to it—the Cubs are going to need Hendricks AND Smyly to contribute through the summer to continue to be contenders. Hendricks will continue to call his own pitches and needs to execute.
(and the Cubs bullpen didn’t give that game away any more than the Pirates bullpen did—that one yesterday is on Steele)
You solidified my point.
Nico is our best pure hitter and he can swipe bags. He is a protocol leadoff guy who is fine batting second.
Especially facing a guy like Skenes, you want a hitter like Nico would can and will jump on the first pitch and put a lot of pressure on him.
Tauchman is solid second leadoff hitter but he isn’t as talented as Nico. Regardless of the season Tauchman is having right now, he isn’t as good as Hoerner and if you are batting Suzuki second, Nico has to bat first. Then with Tauchman’s on base skills (currently) having him hit last gives Nico and Suzuki more RBI opportunities. It’s basically doing what the Cardinals did with Pujols when they were actually successful and led by a good manager.
Gomes is one of the best if not the best pitcher at reading opposing hitters swings. To get Hendricks back on track, he should be game planning with Gomes before and then letting Gomes and the dugout call the pitches.
Drasco, I think Hendricks issues aren’t likely due to him calling his own pitches. As you often try to do, you’re trying to present a nebulous point, as being an earth shaking detail. Maybe you think Tucker Barnhart should still be here, and that would be the difference maker?
drasco, first of all, Gomes is a catcher, not a pitcher. But, my question is this: I was wondering what metrics you used, to determine that Gomes “. . . is one of the best, if not THE BEST at READING OPPOSING HITTERS SWINGS”?
Wow, you have a keen eye! Plus you must look at a lot of tape. Apparently you can read minds too.
lol so angry and so stupid at the same time. Read an article, a tweet, a quote.
Your lack of baseball knowledge is astounding! Read something other than the trade rumors page and get back to me. Moron.
If I had a basic female pup mind, such as yourself, I’d be confused as well.
Go have conversations with 13 year olds, they are more on your intellectual level, I.e. their brains haven’t developed critical thinking or problem solving skills either.
Does everybody remember when Counsell said We want Adbert to be good, We Need Adbert to be good. Do we really need him? I mean deep down inside.
If you break down what Counsell said, yes.
“We want adbert to be good”
“We need Adbery to be good”
Counsell clearly was saying, “we need Adbert to pitch like he pitched last season” and we absolutely need that. We need a high leverage arm. We need a closer. We need a guy who can come in and shut down a rally. We absolutely need that. We obviously very much need that.
Now, do we “need” this current version of Alzolay who is getting shelled, blowing leads, giving up runs every outing? No. Obviously how he is pitching now is a major part of the problem.
It’s more PC than saying “Alzolay needs to get his stuff right or we need to replace Alzolay” but he’s ultimately saying the same thing.
I can’t wait to see how the Cubs set their bullpen tomorrow for the Braves series. They have a bunch of guys who are bad or overused right now and two good options that they’re using as multi inning guys. Thompson has to go down and probably Lovelady also. Lovelady hasn’t been as bad as it could have been but is Little ready to come up yet? He hasn’t been all that different than he was last time at Iowa. All the depth guys are hurt. Brewer is usable but they wore him out also. Iowa really has nothing. Edwards isn’t all that either. The guy I like the best is McWilliams but he’s really just getting back into it and needs some more time. Hodge is erratic, All the good options we had are failing or hurt. As the saying goes, Next…………
Whoever designed the Cubs schedule didn’t really do them any favors. 26 games in 27 days is a disgrace. Somebody needs to get fired. That’s ridiculous.
Drascoo- The bullpen is a mess. Nobody knows their role. Except maybe Neris and he really shouldn’t be the closer. The key to any bullpen is the closer role and the Cubs have guys with the talent but nobody can throw a strike without somebody hitting it hard. maybe we overestimated Counsell’s ability to run one. Now they’ll probably overpay to get somebody. They better do something fast is all I know.
Dras- Every time I bash somebody he picks that day to go nuts. Mastrobuoni went off finally. LOL. After I bashed Brennen Davis yesterday he went like 4-4 yesterday, Sigh.
“Every time I bash somebody he picks that day to go nuts.”
The truth is, you have no idea what you’re talking about, so that’s why you’re constantly wrong. DFA Wisdom…
The truth is I still think there are people playing at Iowa who can do Wisdom’s job better and cheaper. But for now it’s actually somewhat of a relief to see him really try to HIT the ball instead of launch it into outer space and he’s made himself useful. I always said if he could do that he can stay. How long will it last? Who knows. At the very least he’s making himself a trade chip instead of a DFA. So kudos to him.
I have the opposite effect, every time I complement a player, especially a pitcher, they give up bombs.
Patrick Wisdom beats up the NL Central like it owes him money.
Stay hot and grab the production wherever we can get it.
He acts like I root against Cubs because I think they have better people. Wisdom is taking walks, Working Counts, Making contact way more often all things he hasn’t been doing in 2 years. And he’s been playing decent defense. So why would I want him to fail? I root for the Cubs. I’m rooting for Hendricks. I wasn’t rooting for them to pick up his option at 16 million bucks because I thought that money could have been better spent on the Pen and said so many times. But he’s here, The money’s gone so do I root against him? Why would I? The way the pen is if he can start and move Wesneski and Brown to the pen it makes them better. The Cubs might have some kind of weird pen where they have guys pitch 3-4 innings and finish games. I have no idea what it’s going to look like until Guys in the minors start throwing strikes or guys get healthy whatever comes first.
Counsell has done a really good job putting Wisdom in favorable match ups. Something I don’t think Ross really grasped.
Wisdom is getting opportunities against lefties and soft tossers, that’s how you have to utilize him. The guy cannot handle heat, having him face a guy throwing 95 4 seamers is a wasted at bat unless they didn’t do their research and hang a slider (like they did last night).
Jake Slaughter can play 1B, 2B, 3B, and OF and has been getting it done at Iowa since last year. And he can steal bases and is a good base runner. I’m pretty sure he has to be added this year to the 40 or lost in rule 5. I don’t really think they want to lose him but he’s a nice safety blanket as long as Wisdom is getting it done but he’s just a short plane ride away if Wisdom goes the other way. And next year I doubt both will be here.
I tend to respect the decisions of the scouting department/front office when it comes to prospects and call ups. There is just too many things at that level that I don’t understand/see.
DFA Wesneski
Can you put your head around the amount of data you and I don’t have access to? Yet I make so many stupid comments based on a fraction of information the Cubs front office has at their fingertips…Hoyer is a moron… Counsell is also….
But…but, if I’m a guy living in Des Moines in a single wide trailer, I’m smarter than both.
Well I watch the games in the Minors. All of them. If you’re saying I live in Iowa you’re even dumber than I thought. All you have to do is 1. get out of the closet, 2. take your change jar from delivering newspapers, Then 3. Subscribe to MLB.com and you can see any game being played( Except in Chicago). It includes just about every Minor League game. So I watch the players, I can read the stats, I have all 4 Cubs minor league games on my computer so I can just flip between them depending on what prospects I want to watch. So I’m not just spouting crap, I watch the games. If you don’t like my opinions mute me. Or better yet get me out of your head and shut up.
He will finish the year with a .500 record and his time with Cubs will be over but he will be the reincarnation of Jamie Moyer and pitch many more years
White Sox are the real stadium/culture/location/history./fanbase/team of Chicago.
Time to replace Wrigley (way past time). Or just move the team.
Southside.
This is what happens when you mix drugs and alcohol. Warn your children.
Maybe he’s a real Dr. Rockso the rock n roll clown ye-ye-yeah! And if you’re familiar with him. You know what he does.
souiefh or whatever he’s currently calling himself changes his stupid username more often than I change my underwear
Send Thompson back for the rest of the season…
The next 3 games the Cubs have could be a preview of NLCS.
Atlanta will have their hands full
Cubs have the upper hand In Manager and POBO