Adbert Alzolay

The Cubs have placed young righty Adbert Alzolay on the injured list at their top affiliate, as Tony Andracki of NBC Sports Chicago was among those to cover on Twitter. Alzolay, who was pulled from his most recent outing, is said to be dealing with biceps inflammation.

That’s not necessarily a worrying bit of injury news — so long as it’s not a euphemistic way of characterizing a more serious underlying problem. But it will no doubt be handled with an abundance of caution for a talented, 24-year-old pitcher who already missed a long stretch late last year with a lat injury.

Alzolay had put himself firmly on the MLB map. He reached the majors for the first time earlier this year, allowing nine earned runs in 11 1/3 innings with a 12:7 K/BB ratio. Like many other pitchers, he was done in by long balls (4). But he also showed a 94 mph heater and 10.6% swinging-strike rate in his brief stint. Though Alzolay has also been hit around a bit at Triple-A this year, he’s also carrying 12.4 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9 through his 43 2/3 innings at the club’s top affiliate.

Having already dealt Mike Montgomery, and without the possibility of swinging any trades after the end of this month, the Cubs would surely like to have Alzolay available as a rotation option if a need arises. And there’s always the chance of a live-armed youngster functioning in some kind of relief capacity down the stretch and even into the postseason.

With Kyle Hendricks on the injured list, the Cubs may deploy a trio of pitchers to fill Hendricks’ starts during what the team hopes will be a relatively brief injury absence for the right-hander.  As president of baseball operations Theo Epstein told reporters (including the Chicago Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer) that the team was planning to use spot starters to give their veteran arms extra days of rest.  Tyler Chatwood and Mike Montgomery could be two of the pitchers filling in, though the third could be pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay.

“Alzolay is on a real roll at Triple-A, and we’d been planning even before this to possibly give him a couple of spot starts at some point over the next month or so,” Epstein said.  “Just to get his feet wet and also give our veteran rotation guys a little bit of a breather during a stretch in the schedule where we don’t have a lot of off days.”

Alzolay, 24, has a 3.09 ERA over 32 innings for Triple-A Iowa this season, with a stunning 12.9 K/9 and 7.67 K/BB rate.  His only real flaw is a 1.1 HR/9, which stems from “extreme flyball tendencies,” as per his MLB.com scouting report.  Despite some issues with the long ball, Alzolay is given credit for having a plus curveball and a plus fastball that sits in the 92-96mph range.

Though Alzolay has promise and has been at or near the top of the Cubs’ prospect charts for a couple of years, this could be more due to the fact that Chicago has promoted or dealt away many of their recent top minor leaguers.  In overall prospect rankings, only Baseball Prospectus placed Alzolay in its preseason top-100 (sitting 95th), while Alzolay has yet to crack even the updated midseason versions of the MLB.com or Baseball America top 100, while Fangraphs has Alzolay outside of their top 125.  Still, an injury-shortened 2018 season could account for his lack of notice, as a lat problem limited Alzolay to only eight starts last season.

It doesn’t seem as if Alzolay, if he is promoted, will necessarily be in line for an extended stint in his big league debut.  Hendricks and Yu Darvish, however, are the only Cubs starters on guaranteed deals beyond the 2020 season, so a solid first impression could certainly put Alzolay in line for an extended look possibly as early as next season, depending on what happens with Cole Hamels’ free agency.

Top Cubs pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay is slated to miss the remainder of the season, GM Jed Hoyer told reporters including Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter). The recovery timeline for the lat injury he suffered recently is too lengthy to make a return plausible.

Clearly, that’s disappointing news for the Chicago organization and its prized young hurler. The 23-year-old was seen as a rising talent entering the year, topping most lists of the best prospects in a generally low-rated farm.

It surely seemed possible, at least, that Alzolay would factor as soon as the current season and certainly by 2019. He had not exactly dominated in eight starts at Triple-A, working to a 4.76 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 over 39 2/3 innings, but was (and is) still seen as a big talent within the organization.

As Hoyer put it, via MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat (on Twitter): “It’s a setback for 2018 but we don’t see it as a setback for his career. We love the makeup, love the stuff. We think he’ll help us a lot in the future.”

It’s obviously still possible that Alzolay will be a notable part of the Cubs’ depth chart next year. But the loss will tell. He will miss a lot of development opportunities, while the team will not get to evaluate him as fully. Most notably of all, perhaps, is the simple question of innings. Alzolay had not previously topped 120 1/3 in a full season. Even if he is able to log some frames in fall or winter ball, that’s not going to make the Cubs comfortable pushing him out next season.

Fortunately for the Cubs, the 2019 rotation is already fully accounted for (assuming full health). Still, Alzolay’s injury situation will impact the team’s planning. Per Hoyer, via ESPNChicago.com’s Jesse Rogers (on Twitter): “We’ll be on the lookout for rotation depth and in the bullpen, no matter what, but this [injury to Alzolay] underscores that a little bit.”