The Cubs are placing Jameson Taillon back on the 15-day injured list, manager Craig Counsell tells reporters (including Maddie Lee of The Chicago Sun-Times). Taillon departed his most recent start with left groin tightness. Javier Assad will be recalled from Triple-A Iowa to take his spot on the active roster.
Taillon just returned from a nearly two-month absence due to a right calf strain. This isn’t expected to be anywhere near as serious. Counsell said the Cubs believe it’ll be close to a minimal stint. They can backdate the placement to August 25, meaning he’ll be eligible to return on September 9. He’ll miss at least two turns through the rotation but should be back in plenty of time to vie for a spot on Chicago’s postseason roster.
The veteran righty has made 19 starts. Taillon carries a 4.15 ERA with a below-average 18.8% strikeout rate. He’s throwing plenty of strikes but has allowed home runs at a career-worst clip. This is is the fourth straight season in which Taillon has struggled to miss bats, and his velocity has trended down over the course of his four-year free agent deal.
Taillon looks like a fifth starter at this stage of his career. The Cubs will head into October with questions about their pitching depth. Cade Horton, Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd project as their top three arms for the playoff rotation as long as the Cubs don’t collapse in September. Assuming Michael Soroka will be limited to relief work if he’s able to make it back from a shoulder strain, Taillon and Colin Rea are the top options for a potential Game 4 postseason start.
Assad has lost most of the season to an oblique strain. He’s made three MLB starts since returning, allowing six runs across 14 innings. The Cubs have optioned him twice but recalled him shortly after on both occasions. Pitchers typically must spend 15 days on an optional assignment, but an exception is made if they’re replacing someone who goes on the injured list.
The Cubs have Horton and Imanaga to start the next two games. Assad will take the ball on Saturday at Coors Field. He’ll step into Taillon’s rotation spot for the time being. He’s a long shot to get much consideration for Chicago’s playoff roster — either in the rotation or long relief — but he should get at least two starts to try to make his case.
Cubbie Collapse.
Silly take or trolling.
Cubs and Phillies have the same record. Dodgers are half a game better. Padres are one game worse. When Justin Steele went down in April, did you think the Cubs would be tied with the Phillies and half a game back of the Dodgers with 28 games to go?
Give the Brewers their due for having the best record. Mets and Reds are not catching the Cubs or Padres.
I’ll take that bet, Mets are catching them & I think they can catch the Phillies this year
Still too soon to say the Reds or Mets won’t catch the Cubs, but I wouldn’t bet money either team will.
Which means it’s still too soon to say the Cubs won’t catch the Brewers. I wouldn’t bet on that either.
Pressure on the Cubs today—with the Reds loss yesterday the Cubs are the only team that hasn’t been swept in a series of three or four games this season. (yes, they did lose the first TWO in Japan—but when that “series” continued at Wrigley the Cubs did win the final two games)
@Commenter: Maybe you’re right, but I sense you are more nervous than you let on? Yes, the Cubs still have a good record now, but the way they’re playing, they aren’t going to keep it for long. As silly as comments like “Cubby collapse” are, they do have a point. The Cubs are not going to make the postseason if Suzuki, PCA, Busch and Tucker all slump for the rest of the season. The Cubs cannot lose their way into the postseason. If they don’t start winning, someone will catch them.
Series to worry about: The two Braves series. The Braves are healthier and better now than they were earlier in the season.
And the possible debacle Sept. 18-21.
We cannot talk the Cubs into the playoffs, Commenter. They have to earn it. ‘
Alan
I put the Cubs chance of making the post-season at maybe 87.5%. Same as Padres. Dodgers 90%.
Doesn’t matter since the Reds and sub-.500 teams are too far back to deny them a WC spot even if they go in a tailspin (doubtful w/scheduled opponents).
Cubs are a playoff underdog who has to magically hope some bats wake up just in time and shorten outings of Horton just to keep him in routine for pitching a G1 or G2.
Hey! There goes Alan AGAIN. He told us the Cubs were going be to 15 out after the Brewers series.
Of course they will struggle in the playoffs if they are all slumping at the same time. Same as they can go on a run if a group gets hot.
Even when they “struggle” they seem to win some games. As someone mentioned above, as of this morning, only team not to be swept in a series and also only team not to lose four games in a row.
Cubs need to worry about the Braves the same way told us about them ready to collapse in the back to back Marlins/White Sox series back in May.
You can worry about you want. For me, I don’t worry about an outcome of a game going forward until no earlier than September 30th.
Aloha folks, and the hits keep coming between Craig C making unique calls on the lineup with a struggling Tucker, Happ and Seiya could also use a rest, Caissie just sits on the bench. Well, I give credit to Milwaukee with a smaller budget and manager that cost way less than the highest paid manager in baseball but getting better results the past 2 seasons. I know it’s not all on Craig C but it is interesting. Mahalo
Taillon feels like one of those pitchers who didn’t have much of a market but there was nothing glaringly wrong with him, so some team looking to appear like they were spending big without actually spending big gave him this deal and it’s been middling to disappointing, but we all knew it’d turn out this way and he’s very lucky to have received the 4 years/$68M and this contract will come and go with a whimper.
All the warning signs were there with Taillon. Quite honestly he’s been on the IL almost as much as he’s been active, or at least it seems like it.
Dumb take, Mr. Hindsight is 20/20. He’s been a reliable backend starter and his contract is fine for the role.
“We’d all know…”
Do you say this for every player which hits the IL? If Taillon didn’t have much of market, why didn’t the Cubs sign him for $4M/4?
Who said “we’d all know… ” because I didn’t say that….
Also there are a ton of pitchers who’ve been given multi-year eight figure AAV contracts where it felt more like it was just their turn, they’d earned the free agency level salary in terms of time put into the game, but that they were borderline in terms of production quality and the contracts played out terribly with a team that I honestly wonder if the league pressured to sign the player, because nobody else would and those teams rarely spend money, so they spend medium bucks on middling players to look like they’re trying to be competitive and the player makes their ‘set for life’ money.
Re-read your original post.
“I honestly wonder if the league pressured to sign the player…”
Not every team had their hands forced by the league like the A’s which was an unique situation.
Put down your tin foil hat and try to understand how a free market works instead of being upset that pro athletes make millions.
Taillin on the DL, never heard of it. lol
Taillon is another example of the Cubs spending too much money on somewhat above players (Swanson is another one) and not spending enough on star-level players.
*somewhat above average players
I am enjoying this Cub second half of the season. The All Stars,the over the top hype and now, the real team shows up. But ownership is raising ticket prices and extending garbage. By the way, I have been a Cub fan since ‘67.
…..and trolling since the invention of the internet.
Not a peep out of you in 8-2 stretch just before this two game losing streak.
Cry some more.
Listening to the broadcast on the Cubs flagship station, noticed how protective the broadcast team was of ‘stars’. Runners on 2nd and 3rd, no out. On a long fly, Kyle “Sammy” Tucker airmails a throw to home in a vain attempt to get a runner at home who safely trotted in, while the runner on second advanced to third. Predictably, the Giants plate the go ahead run on a sac fly shortly after. Meantime Pat and Ron compliment the Giants for timely hitting. Are the Cubs broadcasters really that daft? Or have they been instructed not to offend one of their bell cows? Jimmy Piersall (along with a younger Harry Caray) would have been all over this.
At least said you were listening and didn’t see the play. Tucker did not “airmail” a throw home. He made a throw that was in perfect line to the cutoff man and it happened to hit Chapman before getting to Turner. The ball then went astray….
None of this mentioned by the Crack radio crew, just that he made a valiant attempt to gun the runner at home but fell short
I think most local crews put a good spin on local stars to stay in good graces with both players and management. Even when it comes to bad calls on balls and strikes it is phrased differently as to when it impacts home and away teams.
Giants sweep today! You can put it on the board, yes!
Very happy we can make your day.
If things fall right with your Sox tonight they can pull within 22.5 games of that playoff spot.
If all the stars align for you, the Rockies can sweep the Cubs this weekend and you get to keep that 121 loss record into eternity.
How many home run balls given up by shota iminaga retrieved by Elise menaker out of covey cove today?
It is a bit annoying how much Marquee sells the sizzle and ignores the steak, but it has been ever been thus.
If the Cubs get swept today, real fans will be too depressed to care about T-Mac and her canoe….Marquee so DOESN’T “get all of it.”
There is one purpose and only one purpose in following any team: to win.
The Pirates drafted Taillon #2 overall in MLB 2010 draft. The Orioles drafted Manny Machado #3. Pirates scouting team at its finest.
You could cherry-pick all day, any day to make any team sound bad.
Not a cherry pick when Taillon is a 5th starter and Machado is a future HOFer drafted 1 spot behind him, not 25 spots behind. The Pirates can’t afford to miss on top 5 prospects like other clubs can. If Machado was drafted as a pirate, sure, he would be long gone but who knows what they could have traded him for. The was a HUGE fail by the pirates.
All I’m saying is that you can rag on all 29 teams which which passed multiple times on Pujols and Trout. Would the Pirates drafting of Machado instead alter the direction of the franchise? No, like you said. Same with Skenes when he leaves.
You are missing my point. This isn’t about Trout being drafted much much later. This is the #2 overall pick versus #3 overall pick. You have to be really bad of a team to have the opportunity to draft #2 and the pirates messed that up. Just like a few years ago drafting #1 and taking Henry Davis who is pretty much leaning towards a bust, and definitely a bust as a #1 draft pick. You can’t mess up top 5 draft picks which the pirates historically have done mines Paul Skenes.
They picked a guy who is still an above average pitcher 15 years later.
They didnt mess up. Just because #3 turned out really well doesn’t make #2 wrong.
I feel confident in the first round of the wildcard games with Horton, Shota, Boyd rotation. That’s a sweep there…
Umm–nice—but Ohtani, Snell, and Yamamoto are pretty good as well.
As of today it will be Cubs vs Padres… the next round tho…
The next round will be the Brewers.
Have to get to the playoffs first. Don’t count your chickens….
Gotta love baseball. Cubs will be fine. 162.
Does Jordan wicks and or Owen caissie have places on 2026 cubs given that they were both highly regarded at one time?
Do Oscar Colas or Eloy Jimenez or Andrew Vaughn or Fernando Tatis Jr. have places on the 2026 White Sox?????
Cubbies free fall continues!! Mets and padres due to get hot then watch out!
Yes, the Cubs could go 9-19 and the Giants 19-9 the rest of the way, and the Giants get the last WC spot. The Cubs could do worse than that, in fact. They have stopped playing with a month to go in the season. Heads should roll, but they won’t.
Correction- they quit playing after first 2 months and they’ve average record wise since all star break- not good enough by far!
The attitude here seems to be, if we SAY the Cubs are going to make the playoffs enough, then they WILL make the playoffs, right? No. What we say can’t make anything happen. And while you were saying it, the Cubs let the Giants back into the race.
Will cubs reach 90 victories because alfyer all that would be success to Jed not playoffs?