Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to camp for all 30 clubs this week, but the Cubs started a little earlier than everyone else. That’s due to the fact that the Cubs and Dodgers are starting the regular season early, flying to Tokyo to play a couple of games there in mid-March.
Inevitably, the opening of camp leads to revelations of injuries that weren’t previously known to the public. Cubs manager Craig Counsell relayed a couple of those to reporters, including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Right-hander Javier Assad is dealing with some oblique soreness while fellow righty Brandon Birdsell is dealing with an issue in the back of his shoulder. Per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, Assad is getting some imaging today.
At this point, it’s unclear if either issue is serious, though the club’s rotation depth could suffer if one or both of these hurlers have to miss some time. On paper, Assad would be in the club’s Opening Day rotation. Last year, he made 29 starts and logged 147 innings, allowing 3.73 earned runs per nine. He was probably a bit lucky to allow so few runs, as his 80.3% strand rate was well above the 72.1% league average, while his 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate were both subpar. Still, his 4.64 FIP and 4.72 SIERA still point to him being a passable back-end guy.
As of right now, the rotation to start the season would include Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd in four spots. Assad and Colin Rea would be candidates for the back end. If Assad is healthy, Rea could wind up in a long reliever role, or he could hold down the number five spot if Assad needs some time on the shelf.
Birdsell is further down the depth chart. A fifth-round pick from 2022, he is not yet on the 40-man roster. But he finished his 2024 season with 12 Triple-A starts with a 4.26 ERA, 26.2% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. He’ll likely be back in the Iowa rotation to start 2025 as a top depth option, alongside guys like Jordan Wicks, Cody Poteet and Cade Horton.
Adding to the club’s starting mix is seemingly still a possibility. The Cubs were recently connected to the rumors surrounding Dylan Cease of the Padres. They also still have a bit of wiggle room in terms of the competitive balance tax, assuming they would rather not pay it this year. RosterResource puts their current CBT number at $209MM, more than $30MM away from the $241MM base threshold.
Cease is going to make $13.75MM this year, so he could easily fit into that remaining space. There are also a few mid-rotation pitchers still available in free agency, such as Andrew Heaney, Nick Pivetta, Jose Quintana and more. The club isn’t likely to rush out and make a panic move just because of a few spring injuries, but it’s an area they had their sights set on already. It’s possible that further developments that impact the overall group could increase the club’s desire to pivot to backup plans.
Aloha folks, here we go. Wonder how many pitchers go down this season, not just with the Cubs.
Another question I’m curious about, are the players taking necessary measures to come into camp physically ready? Or at least building up their flexibility and strength going into Spring Training. I hope for the best. Mahalo!
I think they just do what Babe Ruth did and go chop wood to heat their winter cabins.
Don’t forget about eating hotdogs
m.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hpRGXclIo
I saw Matt Shaw in Tempe tonight. Dude seemed to be in good shape. ROY season incoming?
How do you calculate Strand Rate? Is it just [(Hits allowed-homeruns)] + BB +HBP/Runs allowed-homeruns??
Why did Cubs report early and not Dodgers?
sourhern california lackadaisical attitude towards work
This cracks me up
The Dodgers deferred the start of Spring Training
The Dodgers are doing Post Covid Zoom training calls.
The Dodgers have the second earliest reporting dates for Pitchers & catchers first workout | Full squad first workout on Tues., Feb. 11 | Sat., Feb. 15.
The Cubs are earliest with Sun., Feb. 9 | Fri., Feb. 14 camp starts.
The remainder of MLB commences on Feb. 12 or 13 | Feb. 17 or 18.
Dodgers deferred spring training start date
The Dodgers defer everything.
Assad has been having a rough offseason since early December.
When we will get latest breaking news regarding ARod?
Panel rules for Lore, Rodriguez in sale of Timberwolves: espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43785345/panel-rules-lore-…
Ben Brown is always the forgotten man. The kid has outstanding stuff and should’ve been given a shot to start the season in the rotation.
Agreed, leftcoaster. The best Cubs news in about the last month was Sunday when Brown tweeted that he was 100% and had no limitations at the start of camp.
That neck injury was kept very quiet after he went on the IL last season and got very discouraging in October when it finally was reported that the hadn’t begun throwing yet, some 4-5 months later.
The Sunday tweet was encouraging and I’m sure he will be in the mix for some very important roles now.
His mysterious neck injury has hampered expectations, but he has a ton of talent. Hope he’s 100%… And as an aside, for those who were complaining about the Rea signing, well, there ya go.
Agreed Rondon—instead of having some kind of combination of Assad, Rea, Wicks, Brown (and potentially others, Kilian?) lined up at 5, 6, 7, 8 that stack just got shortened.
Even with the best of best good news on Assad there’s no chance he’s coming north with the team.
And, of course, not on the 40 man—but a pretty fair prospect, the Birdsell shoulder/lat injury is a tough one for the kid. Cade Horton didn’t pitch after May 29th last year with his injury.
Brown and Horton are the only TOR quality arms in the system. They should be the top priorities vs these inning eating AAAA types that they are prioritizing.
I get Rea piggybacking Brown while Assad sits in AAA for injury depth. Wicks should also battle for middle inning work. His SO per 9 was solid last year and in shorter stints it might tick up.
Brown is the most exciting major league pitcher we have so yeah I don’t know why he’s not getting more attention
Horton lost some steam. But as far as a complete starter Horton is the top guy. He needs to get Iowa under his belt first but it would be shocking if he was not called up.
Brown could equal that level if he gains a MLB quality 3rd pitch. Right now his change is fringey. It is very situational right now. I am not saying that he should reinvent himself but adding something.
Right now he stays pretty much center of the plate. His curve is more of a hammer at high velocity. Adding a football slider and a knuckle curve to his main two would be awesome if it works with in his current mechanics.
I wouldn’t sleep on Assad. He seems to have a knack to get the K or the double play. Andy Pettitte pitched until he was gray and white living on the edge like that.
Pettitte was left handed, a winner and very good, Assad is a right hander who is bad and fat.
I don’t mind pitchers with a little extra beef on them. Better for all the tendons and ligaments in the arm….the more cushion for the pushin’ theory works in various applications.
He’s outperformed his FIP by a stretch 3 years in a row while maintaining a sub-4.00 era which is pretty good for a swingman. Maybe the guy knows what he is doing out there on the mound.
Mostly park conditions. You really have to look at it as he lost more battles at the plate than you would like. Then park factor put the D into more plays than normal. The Cubs D is quite good
But putting guys on base plus normal park conditions means 2-3 run HR more than what you want to see.
It doesn’t bode well unless he takes a step forward
Brown on the other hand. 98 4 seam plus the best death ball curve in baseball plus a change up that he can utilize as needed.
He has the toolbox that Zambrano and Hottovi can build into a legit force in the rotation.
I personally want to see more ceiling guys going forward. You can get guys like Rea cheap. What is the point of developing these guys outside of injury.
Assad has poor home away splits. He was benefiting from historical pitcher friendly conditions at Wrigley.
He is more likely to become a 5.00 ERA vs repeat
This comment may trigger some – but this is why you sign Colin Rea types. There is value in eating innings, staying healthy, and being quite league average.
It will only trigger those that are much more qualified than Jed Hoyer and doing the job for free on the internet.
An important ability is availability.
There is two opinions on this.
One agrees with you
One says 5M could have gone to Bregman.
Rea makes sense if you are going with Brown to ease his work load. Any other scenario falls into a money waste that could have been used better