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Cubs To Place Cody Bellinger On IL With Fractured Rib, Recall Pete Crow-Armstrong

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3:55pm: Bellinger technically has two cracked ribs, Counsell tells Jesse Rogers of MLB.com, though there’s still no timeline for his absence.

3:25pm: The Cubs are going to place outfielder Cody Bellinger on the injured list due to a fractured rib, per Robert Murray of FanSided, relaying words from manager Craig Counsell on 670 The Score. Fellow outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong will be recalled in a corresponding move.

Bellinger crashed into the wall at Wrigley Field last night while attempting to make a catch and was later removed. The club announced that he had a right rib contusion with Counsell saying after the game that the initial x-rays came back negative. It would appear that further testing has revealed a fracture and Bellinger will require a stint on the injured list to heal up.

It’s unclear at this point exactly how much time Bellinger will need to heal this fracture but the club will likely provide more information today or in the coming days. Either way, it’s an unfortunate blow for the club as Bellinger was just starting to heat up at the plate.

He hit .167/.270/.296 through his first 14 contests but his line in his past eight games was .333/.412/.700. Instead of building on that momentum, he’ll now have to sit out while dealing with this rib injury for some unknown amount of time.

For the Cubs, they already have several pitchers on the injured list and today’s news will leave them doubly shorthanded in the outfield. Seiya Suzuki went on the IL last week due to an oblique strain and is looking at an absence of about a month or so.

Those injuries will open the door for Crow-Armstrong to get another shot in the majors. He’s long been considered an excellent defender but with less certainty about his offense. He got his first taste of the majors late last year but hit just .000/.176/.000 through his first 19 plate appearances. He’s also been struggling in Triple-A so far this year, with a line of .203/.241/.392 in 83 plate appearances down there.

Despite the lack of offense lately, Crow-Armstrong might get a decent run of playing time in center while Bellinger is out. As mentioned, he should at least provide the Cubs with strong glovework, but the hitting will be more of a question mark. Ideally, he could get back to the form he showed prior to his promotion last year, when he hit .283/.365/.511 between Double-A and Triple-A. Some combination of Ian Happ, Mike Tauchman and Alexander Canario will also be in the mix for outfield playing time, with Patrick Wisdom heading out to the grass on some occasions as well.

For Bellinger personally, this injury will possibly put a dent in his plans to return to the open market in search of the long-term contract he didn’t find this winter. Though he hit .307/.356/.525 for the Cubs last year while also providing strong outfield defense, it seems that teams around the league were still hesitant about his injury-induced struggles in previous seasons. He required shoulder surgery after the 2020 season and hit just .193/.256/.355 over the two subsequent campaigns.

Even though his results were good last year, he also spent some time on the injured list due to a left knee contusion. Even when he returned from the IL, the Cubs kept him at first base for a while to limit the wear and tear on him, as opposed to running him out to the more demanding position of center field.

The bounceback in 2023 wasn’t enough to get Bellinger the mega deal he was likely hoping to secure, and he instead returned to the Cubs on a three-year deal that allows him to opt out after each season. After inking that deal, the ideal scenario would have seen Bellinger stay healthy and productive for the whole year, therefore casting aside some of the doubts about his health and long-term viability. Each day that he spends on the injured list this year will limit his ability to shift the narrative before deciding whether to trigger his opt-out at the end of the season.

Cubs Place Kyle Hendricks, Drew Smyly On Injured List

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The Cubs announced a series of roster moves, with Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic among those to relay the full slate. Right-hander Kyle Hendricks and left-hander Drew Smyly have each been placed on the 15-day injured list, Hendricks due to a lower back issue and Smyly due to a hip impingement. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski and left-hander Luke Little were recalled in corresponding moves. The club also designated Garrett Cooper for assignment and recalled Matt Mervis, as swap that was reported on earlier.

Hendricks, 34, has been out to an awful start this year. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the righty’s struggles, before Hendricks made his most recent start. As of right now, Hendricks has logged 21 innings this year over five starts. He has allowed 28 earned runs in that time, leading to an eye-popping earned run average of 12.00.

He’s never been a huge strikeout guy but his 15.1% rate this year is lower than any season since his 2014 debut. It’s possible there’s some bad luck at play, with Hendricks having allowed a .392 batting average on balls in play. He’s also stranding only 50.3% of runners while a third of his fly balls have gone over the fence. His 7.75 FIP and 4.44 SIERA each suggest that he has deserved better, though to very different degrees. That’s due to FIP counting home runs as the pitcher’s fault whereas SIERA gives more weight to batted ball data as opposed to actual results.

Hendricks is likely due for at least some normalization of his extreme results to this point in the season, but there will have to be a waiting period of at least a few weeks before the details of that correction are revealed. Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, Hendricks felt his back bothering him before his start on Sunday and continued to feel it during the outing. The severity of the issue isn’t clear but he’ll have to miss at least a couple of weeks.

The Cubs will now have to figure out who joins the rotation alongside Shota Imanaga, Jordan Wicks, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad. Tonight marks the start of a stretch where they play 16 games in a row before their next off-day. Smyly has plenty of starting experience and could have been a candidate for such a job, but he’s now on the IL himself.

Wesneski has been working in a swing role for the club in recent years and could perhaps make a few starts. Ben Brown has been pitching multi-inning stints this year and would be another option. Veteran Julio Teheran was signed to a minor league deal last week and gives them a non-roster option. Due to Cooper being designated for assignment, there’s now an opening on the 40-man roster.

Report: Cubs To Designate Garrett Cooper For Assignment

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The Cubs are going to designate first baseman Garrett Cooper for assignment, per Robert Murray of FanSided. It appears he will be the corresponding move for Matt Mervis, as Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register reports that Mervis is being called up.

The transaction comes as a surprise, since Cooper has generally been playing well. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason and made the Opening Day roster. Since then, he’s hit .270/.341/.432 for a wRC+ of 118.

Despite that strong surface-level production, there are also some concerning elements under the hood. Cooper has struck out at a 31.7% clip so far this year, a few ticks above his career rate, which was already a bit above average. He also has an unsustainable .391 batting average on balls in play, well above the .290 league average.

Beyond Cooper’s performance, it seems that Mervis may have just forced the club into making a move. He had huge amounts of helium in 2022, despite landing with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent. The pandemic led to the 2020 draft being shortened to just five rounds and Mervis wasn’t selected, leading to him signing with the Cubs afterwards.

Despite being somewhat overlooked at that time, he shot onto everyone’s radar in 2022, going from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .309/.379/.605 that year. That led to his first taste of the majors last season, though he hit just .167/.242/.289 in his first 99 big league plate appearances. He still hit well in Triple-A last year and is off to a strong start here in 2024. He has five home runs in 82 plate appearances this year and is drawing walks at a 14.6% clip, leading to a line of .288/.402/.606 and a 151 wRC+.

Perhaps the club couldn’t ignore that performance any longer, but handedness may have also played a role. The Cubs as a team are hitting .284/.361/.506 against lefties for a 140 wRC+, second only to the Guardians. But against righties, their collective batting line is .236/.317/.381, which leads to a 97 wRC+ that’s 17th in the league.

Cooper hits from the right side and has been better against lefties in his career, but only modestly. He’s hit .285/.337/.475 against southpaws and .263/.337/.420 otherwise, leading to respective wRC+ counts of 119 and 108. Swapping in Mervis could perhaps give them a bump against right-handed pitchers since he hits from the left side.

The Cubs could have perhaps bumped someone else off the roster in favor of Mervis, such as Patrick Wisdom or Nick Madrigal, but those two offer a bit more defensively. Cooper is only really viable at first base, since his brief time in the outfield corners has yielded poor results. Madrigal and Wisdom can each play third while the latter has some outfield ability as well.

There will now be a week for the Cubs to line up a trade for Cooper or pass him through waivers. It seems fair to expect that there will be interest, based both on his performance so far this year and his track record. He hit .274/.350/.444 for the Marlins from 2019 to 2022, leading to a wRC+ of 117 in that stretch. He struggled to stay healthy in that time and then slumped last year, but he seems to be in good form so far this season.

The Red Sox are going to be without their primary first baseman for a while, as Triston Casas has been diagnosed with a fractured rib. The Astros are getting dismal production from José Abreu thus far. The same goes for the White Sox and Andrew Vaughn, the Twins and Carlos Santana and others. Given all of those different situations, the Cubs will likely be fielding calls about Cooper in the coming days.

Adbert Alzolay Temporarily Removed From Closer's Role

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  • Adbert Alzolay pitched a perfect eighth inning in the Cubs’ 6-3 loss to the Marlins today, as manager Craig Counsell indicated before the game that Alzolay wouldn’t be used in a save situation.  After emerging as Chicago’s closer last season, Alzolay has blown four of seven save opportunities in the early going this year, prompting Counsell to tell reporters (including Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times) that “we’ve got to get Adbert some confidence.”  For his part, Alzolay said mechanical problems were more to blame than any lack of self-belief.  As to who will handle closer duties until Alzolay works his way back into the mix, Counsell said it’s “kind of like a day-to-day thing,” though Hector Neris and Mark Leiter Jr. seem like the most natural candidates.

Ian Happ Exits Game With Hamstring Tightness

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  • Cubs left fielder Ian Happ was removed from Friday’s game against the Marlins in the seventh inning due to what manager Craig Counsell described to reporters (including Andy Martinez of Marquee Sports Network) as left hamstring tightness. Counsell described the move as “precautionary” at the time, though Happ was noticeably absent from both games in the club’s doubleheader on Saturday. It’s not yet clear if Happ will ultimately require a trip to the injured list for the issue, though it makes sense for the Cubs to be cautious regarding their left fielder after he suffered a mild strain of the same hamstring during Spring Training last month. Alexander Canario filled in for Happ yesterday in left field, while Mike Tauchman and Patrick Wisdom have combined to handle right field in the aftermath of Seiya Suzuki’s oblique injury.

Kyle Hendricks’ Tough Start

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Few players have had a more difficult start to 2024 than Kyle Hendricks. The Cubs righty has been rocked for 24 runs over his first 17 innings. He has surrendered an MLB-high seven home runs. Hendricks has allowed more than a run per inning in each of his first four appearances, only completing five innings once.

That’s a far cry from his resurgent showing last season. After consecutive seasons with an ERA near 5.00 in 2021-22, the veteran sinkerballer rebounded with a strong 3.74 mark. Aside from a six-week stint on the injured list, Hendricks had a strong year. It was a fairly easy call for the Cubs to exercise a $16.5MM team option for 2024. While it didn’t always seem as if things were trending in that direction, Hendricks’ platform showing was impressive enough that the option was a straightforward decision by the time it was up for consideration.

There’s still plenty of time for him to turn things around, but this clearly isn’t the opening the former ERA champ and the Cubs were expecting. Hendricks’ starts have come against the Rangers, Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks. They’re all above-average to excellent offensive teams, so it isn’t as if the Cubs have faced an easy set of opponents. Still, this is the worst four-start stretch of Hendricks’ 11-year MLB career in terms of run prevention. He has typically been a slow starter — his career ERA in March/April is more than a run and a half higher than in any other month — but this is an especially rough few weeks.

It’s difficult to know how much emphasis to place on any player’s first couple weeks of the season, especially ones at an extreme. The Cubs surely don’t want to overrate what amounts to a 17-inning sample. Hendricks is a particularly tough pitcher to evaluate because he’s an anomaly in the modern game. He had an excellent seven-year run to start his career behind top-of-the-scale command and an elite changeup to overcome well below-average velocity. Over the past three-plus years, his results have been less consistent.

The velocity and movement profile on Hendricks’ pitches this year isn’t much different than where it was in 2023. His changeup isn’t missing quite as many bats, but his game has never been built on swing-and-miss totals. The far bigger issue has been the damage Hendricks is allowing on contact. Beyond the homers, opponents are hitting almost .400 on balls in play — nearly .100 points higher than the league average.

Both the home runs and BABIP will come down to some extent. Hendricks certainly isn’t going to continue running an ERA above 12.00. Yet it also seems that last year’s sub-4.00 mark was probably anomalous. Hendricks surrendered just 0.85 home runs per nine last season but was in the 1.6 HR/9 range in both 2021 and ’22. Maintaining last year’s success keeping the ball in the yard was always going to be a tough task. Even if his home run rate settles back into the 2021-22 range, Hendricks would project for an ERA approaching 5.00.

That could eventually force the coaching staff to consider moving him out of the rotation. They’re not at that point yet. The Cubs list Hendricks as their probable starter for Sunday’s series finale with the Marlins. That’ll be by far the weakest lineup against which he’s gotten the ball this year. Manager Craig Counsell indicated yesterday the Cubs weren’t considering skipping that start.

“I think frankly, all of our pitching stuff is we’ve got to get through every day,” Counsell told reporters (link via Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). “And then we’re in a tough enough spot, right? We’ve just got to get through the day and then reevaluate it and make an assessment going forward. We’re going to need Kyle’s innings in his next start.”

That could lead the Cubs to proceed with a six-man rotation for the time being. Jameson Taillon has been reinstated from his season-opening injured list stint and will take the ball Friday. He slots back into a starting staff that also includes Shota Imanaga and Jordan Wicks. If the Cubs wanted to go back to a five-man rotation, swingman Javier Assad and rookie Ben Brown would be the straightforward candidates for a move to the bullpen or (in Brown’s case) back to Triple-A Iowa. Yet they’ve each pitched well in the early going. Assad has allowed only four runs through 16 2/3 innings. Brown has allowed eight runs — six of them in a rocky first start — over his first 16 1/3 frames with a solid 23.4% strikeout rate.

The Cubs have been without ace Justin Steele since he left his Opening Day start with a hamstring strain. He’s coming off a recent 25-pitch bullpen session but won’t be back in an MLB game until sometime next month. That could buy the coaching staff time to stick with a six-man rotation or temporarily bump Brown out of the mix. If everyone else is healthy by the time Steele comes back, they might face a tougher decision on whether to continue giving Hendricks the ball every fifth day.

Chicago is midway through a stretch of 10 consecutive game days. They’re off next Monday, their only reprieve before they play 19 in a row through May 8. After his start against Miami, Hendricks would be in line for matchups against the Red Sox and Brewers if the Cubs stay on a six-man trajectory.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Cubs Anticipate Approximate Four-Week Absence For Seiya Suzuki

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  • An approximate month-long absence also seems to be on the table for Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who went on the shelf on Monday with an oblique strain. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters last night that the injury is in the “four-week range,” although the team will have a clearer timetable once Suzuki’s symptoms subside (X link via Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). One of Chicago’s hottest hitters, Suzuki was off to a .305/.368/.525 start to his third MLB campaign. Mike Tauchman has been pushed into right field action against right-handed pitching, with Alexander Canario recalled as a righty complement in the corner opposite Ian Happ.

Cubs Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Cubs announced a series of roster moves to add some fresh arms to the bullpen after their recent pair of extra-inning games taxed the relief corps. Right-handers Hayden Wesneski and Colten Brewer are up from Triple-A Iowa — the latter of whom had his contract selected to the 40-man roster. Chicago optioned righty Daniel Palencia and lefty Luke Little to open a pair of spots on the active roster. Right-hander Julian Merryweather, already shelved with a stress fracture in his ribcage, was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Brewer on the 40-man roster. He’s been on the IL since April 6, meaning he’ll now be out until at least June 6.

The Cubs will be the fourth big league club for Brewer, 31. The right-hander tossed 8 1/3 innings with the Yankees in 2023 and has previously spent time with the Padres and Red Sox. He’s logged a combined 99 1/3 innings across parts of five MLB campaigns, pitching to a 4.98 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate, 13.1% walk rate and 51.3% grounder rate. Brewer also spent time with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last year, hurling 11 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and six walks (one intentional) with 14 strikeouts.

Brewer signed with Chicago on a minor league pact over the winter and had a strong spring training (seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, no walks). He’s posted quite similar numbers in Des Moines so far: 7 2/3 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts. The 6’4″ righty is no stranger pitching to working in a long-relief role and could give the Cubs multiple innings if needed.

A protracted absence for Merryweather stings for the Cubs. The 32-year-old joined the organization as a waiver claim out of Toronto in January 2023 and quickly became one of their most important relievers. Since Opening Day ’23, Merryweather touts a 3.29 ERA (3.46 FIP, 3.41 SIERA) with a huge 32.1% strikeout rate. His 11.7% walk rate could rather obviously stand to improve, but Merryweather has done a nice job keeping the ball in the yard and frequently overpowering opponents with a heater that’s averaged 98.1 mph as a Cub. Among the 244 big league pitchers to toss at least 70 innings since Opening Day 2023, Merryweather’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate ranks 11th, placing him right between Mariners setup stud Matt Brash and reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Ken Holtzman Passes Away

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The Cubs announced that former big league left-hander Ken Holtzman passed away recently. Per an obituary from Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Holtzman had been hospitalized for the past three weeks due to heart problems. He was 78 years old.

Holtzman was born in St. Louis in 1945. He attended the University of Illinois and was selected from there by the Cubs in the 1965 draft. It didn’t take him long to get to the big leagues, with the Cubs calling him up later that same year.

He only made three appearances in 1965 but got a more proper debut in 1966. He made 34 appearances for the Cubs, 33 starts, and tossed 220 2/3 innings with a 3.79 earned run average. In 1967, he was serving in the National Guard and only able to pitch on weekends, but he made the most of his time in that limited role. He made 12 starts and went 9-0 that year, posting a 2.53 ERA in 92 2/3 innings.

With his military obligations completed, he was able to return to a full-time role. 1968 was the first of nine straight seasons in which he made at least 30 appearances and tossed at least 195 innings. Those Cubs teams of the late ’60s and early ’70s were pretty decent, finishing above .500 each year from ’67 to ’72, but not making the playoffs in any of them. Holtzman was a key component of those clubs, taking the ball and posting generally solid results. That included a no-hitter that he tossed against the Braves in 1969 and another against the Reds in 1971.

Prior to the 1972 season, Holtzman was traded to the Athletics for fellow southpaw Rick Monday. The move to Oakland seemed to suit Holtzman. From 1972 to 1975, he tossed at least 255 1/3 innings in each season with his ERA never finishing higher than 3.14. He was selected to the All-Star team in ’72 and ’73 and the A’s won the World Series in three straight years from ’72 to ’74, with Holtzman playing a big part in those titles. Over those three years and in 1975, he pitched in 13 postseason games with a 2.30 ERA in 70 1/3 innings. He even hit a home run in the ’74 series, with the DH not being implemented in the World Series until 1976.

Holtzman was traded to the Orioles prior to the 1976 season and then to the Yankees in the middle of that campaign. He stayed with the Yanks for a while as his playing time faded, getting traded back to the Cubs midway through the ’78 campaign. He made 23 appearances in 1979 with a 4.59 ERA in what eventually proved to be his last season.

His entire big league career resulted in 451 appearances with a 174-150 record and a 3.49 ERA. He pitched two no-hitters, made a couple of All-Star teams and won three rings. Per Hochman, Holtzman has the most wins for a Jewish pitcher in MLB history, with his 174 just ahead of the 165 wins of Sandy Koufax.

MLBTR joins the rest of the baseball community in sending our condolences to the Holtzman family, as well as his many friends and fans around the game.

Cubs Place Seiya Suzuki On Injured List Due To Oblique Strain

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The Cubs announced to reporters, including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, that outfielder Seiya Suzuki has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain. Fellow outfielder Alexander Canario has been recalled in a corresponding move.

At this point, it’s unclear exactly how severe the injury is, but it’s undoubtedly bad news for the Cubs. For one thing, even mild oblique strains usually lead to absences of multiple weeks. Since Suzuki has been one of the club’s hottest hitters so far this year, it’s doubly frustrating that he’s now on the shelf. Suzuki suffered an oblique strain in Spring Training last year, on his left side, and missed the first few weeks of the season.

Through 15 games this year, Suzuki already has three home runs and has produced a batting line of .305/.368/.525 for a wRC+ of 139. Michael Busch is the only other guy on the club who is getting regular playing time and producing more than that. Those two along with Dansby Swanson are the only regulars with a wRC+ above the 100 average. Despite the tepid offense, the Cubs have managed to go 9-6 so far this year but will now have to try to continue winning without Suzuki’s bat in the lineup.

Canario, 24 next month, got to make his major league debut last year but was put into just six games. He’s generally done a lot of hitting in the minors but with plenty of strikeouts as well. Shoulder and ankle injuries limited him to just 53 minor league games last year, but he hit nine home runs and slashed .273/.356/.488 in those, along with strikeouts in 27.5% of his plate appearances.

So far this year, he has reduced his strikeout rate to 24.6% in his 61 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He has also walked at a strong 13.1% rate and hit .269/.377/.481. It’s a fairly small sample size but it nonetheless shows some encouraging progress for the young outfielder.

Whether the Cubs plan on having him take regular playing time in Suzuki’s absence remains to be seen. The club could perhaps use an outfield alignment of Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger and Mike Tauchman while using Garrett Cooper in the designated hitter slot and keeping Canario on the bench. Christopher Morel could also be moved from third base to designated hitter, with Nick Madrigal getting more time at the hot corner. But given the struggles up and down the lineup, perhaps there’s a path for Canario to earn himself some more playing time if he make good use of whatever opportunities he’s given initially.

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