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Cubs To Select Brad Keller; Ben Brown To Be Fifth Starter

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The Cubs have informed Brad Keller that he has made the Cubs’ roster for domestic Opening Day. Manager Craig Counsell passed the news along to Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Cubs will have to make a corresponding move to get him onto the 40-man. Also, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, Ben Brown has won the final rotation spot over Colin Rea.

Keller, 29, pitched to a 4.22 ERA in 10 2/3 innings this spring but turned heads with improved velocity and sharper breaking pitches. He’ll grab a spot in the Chicago bullpen. Given his background as a starter and his 10 2/3 innings in just six appearances, he’ll give Counsell an option who can pitch multiple innings.

Keller was a Rule 5 pick by the Royals out of the D-backs system back in 2017, and for three years he was a solid, durable member of the Kansas City rotation. His effectiveness began to wane in 2021, however, and injuries plagued him in the coming seasons. By 2023, his command had completely eroded. He walked 45 batters in 45 1/3 innings before landing on the injured list. A series of tests eventually led to a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis and season-ending surgery. He returned to the majors with the White Sox and Red Sox in 2024 but struggled in both spots.

The 25-year-old Brown came to the Cubs in the 2022 trade that shipped David Robertson to the Phillies. Brown made his big league debut last year, tossing 55 1/3 innings with a 3.58 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate, 38.7% grounder rate and 0.81 HR/9. He sits 96-97 mph with his four-seamer and couples that offering with a plus curveball. Brown has at times worked with a changeup in the minors as well but has deployed a two-pitch arsenal in the major thus far. He allowed a pair of runs in 2 2/3 innings versus the Dodgers in the Tokyo Series, but Brown also whiffed five of his 15 opponents there. Similarly, he’s allowed six runs in a small sample of eight spring frames but did so with a pristine 9-to-1 K/BB ratio.

Brown gets the nod over the veteran Rea, who’ll open the season in the bullpen after signing a one-year, $5MM deal in free agency this winter. The 34-year-old righty carries a 4.40 ERA in 292 innings for the Brewers across the past two seasons. He’s worked both as a starter and long reliever in that time. Rea may not start the year in the rotation, but it seems likely he’ll make a handful of starts as injuries and/or poor performance elsewhere in the rotation dictate the need for a fresh arm or even a more permanent replacement.

Javier Assad Ruled Out For Opening Day

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Cubs right-hander Javier Assad has been sidelined this spring due to oblique soreness, and 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine relays this afternoon that the righty won’t be ready to pitch in time for either the Tokyo Series on March 18 or the club’s stateside opener against the Diamondbacks on March 27. Presumably, the Cubs will place him on the injured list to open the season, leaving him out of action for at least the beginning of April.

Assad, 27, has found plenty of success over three seasons in the majors with Chicago despite questionable peripherals. The right-hander served in a part-time swing role for the Cubs in both the 2022 and ’23 seasons, posting a 3.06 ERA (139 ERA+) in 147 innings of work across 41 appearances (18 starts) during that two-year stretch. That excellent production came in spite of underlying numbers that were far less impressive. Assad walked 9.9% of his opponents while striking out just 20.2% of them over those first two seasons, and his 44.7% groundball rate was strong but not outstanding. That left him with a 4.34 FIP and a 4.59 SIERA over those two years, both of which painted him as a below average pitcher despite his above-average results.

When the right-hander was handed an Opening Day rotation spot by the Cubs last year, it was fair to wonder whether those lackluster peripherals would come back to bite him. He once again managed to defy the underlying metrics in 2024, however, posting a 3.73 ERA (107 ERA+) despite a 4.64 FIP and 4.72 SIERA. His strikeout, walk, and groundball rates were largely unchanged from the prior two seasons, but despite that he still posted the numbers of a solid back-end start across 147 innings and 29 starts. His 4.38 ERA and 4.80 FIP after the All-Star break last year stuck out as a potential cause for concern, but after an offseason that saw the club focus more on upgrading its lineup and bullpen rather than the rotation Assad once again figured to feature in the club’s starting five to open the 2025 season.

Those plans will have to be put on hold for now, however, as Assad is only just beginning to work his way back to the mound after being sidelined for all of last month by an oblique strain. Levine writes that the Cubs hope he’ll be able to proceed to throwing a bullpen session next week, but even that seems up in the air. Given the uncertainty surrounding Assad’s status, it’s hardly a surprise that the Cubs decided to formally pull the plug on him as an Opening Day possibility and begin exploring other options to fill out the rotation in earnest.

Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele front Chicago’s rotation and are slated to start the club’s two-game series against the Dodgers in Tokyo. Meanwhile, veterans Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd make up the middle of the Cubs’ rotation after Chicago added Boyd on a two-year deal back in December. With Assad no longer an option for the fifth starter job, it seems likely that the gig could fall to veteran swing man Colin Rea. Rea, 34, posted a 4.40 ERA (96 ERA+) and 4.82 FIP in 58 appearances (49 starts) with Milwaukee over the past two years. He figures to be on the Opening Day roster so long as he’s healthy, though he does have ample experience pitching in relief as well.

The possibility that Rea could be used as a long reliever rather than a starter leaves the door open for one of the Cubs’ other potential starting options to grab the fifth starter job. Right-hander Ben Brown dazzled in his rookie season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work, and while he was sidelined by an osteoma on his neck for the entire second half last year he now appears to be fully healthy. Jordan Wicks struggled through an injury-marred campaign in 2024 but is a recent top-100 prospect with plenty of upside.

Veteran rotation arms Chris Flexen and Brad Keller are both in camp as non-roster invitees, and it’s possible either could factor into the competition for the fifth starter job alongside Rea, Brown, and Wicks. One player who is unlikely to compete for the job is top pitching prospect Cade Horton, who is healthy this spring after what amounted to a lost season in 2024 but still has minimal experience at the Triple-A level under his belt. Whoever earns the fifth starter job could theoretically pitch themselves into a more permanent job that lasts even beyond Assad’s upcoming IL stint, given that the 27-year-old has both ample bullpen experience and minor league options remaining.

Poll: Who Will Be The Cubs’ Fifth Starter?

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As Spring Training gets underway, teams routinely find themselves dealing with unfortunate surprise injuries that can force a change in plans. That may prove to have been the case for the Cubs when presumed fifth starter Javier Assad was diagnosed with an oblique issue at the outset of camp. Given that the strain Assad is reportedly suffering from is mild, he hasn’t been ruled out for Opening Day. With that being said, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma discussed the club’s rotation outlook yesterday and suggested that the Cubs may not push Assad to be ready for Opening Day.

If Assad were to open the season on the injured list, that would leave the door wide open for another player to take that final rotation spot, and even if he’s healthy Assad seems to be less firmly locked into the rotation than Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, or Matthew Boyd. Fortunately for the Cubs, they have the starting pitching depth necessary to cover for Assad if he’s injured and consider other options even in the event that he’s healthy. Though they’ll only need two starting pitchers for their two-game set against the Dodgers in Tokyo that predates the normal start of the regular season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Cubs wanted to have a good idea of what their rotation was going to look like entering that first series of the year.

If he’s healthy, Assad remains easy to bet on for the job. After all, the right-hander delivered 29 solid starts for the Cubs in 2024, pitching to a 3.73 ERA in 147 innings of work. Those are fairly impressive numbers for a back-end starter, but it’s worth noting they also come with notable red flags: Assad wore down badly throughout the year after a hot start, with a 4.84 ERA from June onward and an ugly 6.86 ERA down the stretch in September last year. In addition to those deep struggles later in the season, the right-hander also posted lackluster peripherals with a 4.64 FIP, a strikeout rate of just 19.4%, and a hefty 9.9% walk rate. That’s one of the 10 worst seasons by K-BB% and one of the 15 worst seasons by FIP in all of baseball last year among pitchers with as many innings as Assad.

Should Assad’s combination of spring injuries and second-half struggles give the Cubs enough pause to turn to someone else on Opening Day, it’s possible that offseason addition Colin Rea could be the first to get the call. Rea, 34, signed with the Cubs last month on a one-year, $5MM pact. The righty had a brief stint with the Cubs during the shortened 2020 season, but spend the past two seasons in Milwaukee as a back-end starter for the Brewers. The right-hander posted a 4.40 ERA and 4.82 FIP in 58 appearances over the past two seasons, 42 of which were starts.

Rea posted a higher FIP (4.75) and a lower strikeout rate (18.9%) than even Assad did last year, but he made up for that gap in effectiveness with volume. Rea posted 167 2/3 innings of work for the Brewers last year between 27 starts and five relief appearances, and showed the ability to pitch deep into games as he did so with 19 starts lasting longer than five innings, 11 of which went at least six and five of which saw him pitch into the seventh inning. That ability to pitch into the seventh sets Rea apart from his competitors, as all of the other pitchers mentioned who started an MLB game in the majors last year combined for just two seven-inning starts in 2024. Rea is also notable as the only pitcher discussed here who is both already on the 40-man roster and cannot be optioned to the minor leagues, meaning he’s all but assured a spot in either the Opening Day rotation or bullpen so long as he’s healthy.

While Assad and Rea may be the frontrunners for the job, there are certainly other options worth considering. Chief among those may be right-hander Ben Brown, who stepped into a rotation role with the Cubs early last year and looked good doing so. Brown’s rookie campaign saw him post a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP with an excellent 28.8% strikeout rate. Those are fantastic numbers for any pitcher, but it’s particularly impressive for a 24-year-old getting his feet wet in the majors for the first time.

Unfortunately, Brown’s debut season was limited to just 55 1/3 innings in total, as he was shut down in June due to what Sharma reports turned out to be an osteoma, which is a benign tumor made of bone growing on an existing piece of bone. Brown appears to be healthy and ready to go for the 2025 season and is likely the pitcher with the highest upside the Cubs could turn to for their final rotation job, but his lack of big league experience and long layoff could make the club hesitant to immediately plug him into the rotation.

Another legitimate contender for the role could be southpaw Jordan Wicks, the club’s first-rounder from the 2021 draft and a former top-100 prospect. Wicks has yet to find success at the big league level in 80 2/3 innings of work across 18 appearances (17 starts), with a 5.02 ERA and a nearly matching 5.05 FIP. Like Brown, Wicks also missed much of the 2024 season due to injuries which, in his case, consisted of forearm and oblique issues. That combination of big league struggles and injury history seem to suggest the 25-year-old might be best suited to start the season at Triple-A, but his peripheral numbers were quite strong last year before he got bit by the injury bug as demonstrated by his 25.9% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate in five starts before hitting the IL for the first time.

The aforementioned quartet aren’t the only plausible options, but they’re by far the most likely. Top prospect Cade Horton is a potential front-of-the-rotation arm who would be an exciting addition to the club’s staff, but he suffered a lost season in 2024 due to a subscapularis strain and is all but certain to get more reps in at Triple-A before making the jump to the majors. Non-roster invitees Brad Keller and Chris Flexen are veteran depth pieces who have served as viable back-end starters in recent years, but Keller appears to be getting work in as a reliever this spring while Flexen offers a similar profile to Rea but with lesser results and no guaranteed contract. Nate Pearson was discussed as a potential starting option over the offseason but has success in relief with the Cubs last year pitched just one inning of relief in his first spring appearance.

Who do MLBTR readers think the Cubs will turn to in order to round out the rotation? Will Assad return healthy and effective from his oblique issue to lock down the role? Will the club prioritize Rea due to volume and roster considerations, or go with a higher-upside pitcher like Brown or perhaps Wicks? Have your say in the poll below:

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Brown, Cardinals

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The Pirates are making some changes to their front office, per a report from MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf notes that director of coaching and player development John Baker is moving into a new role with the club that will see him oversee the club’s performance team. While the move has not been announced by the club to this point, Stumpf adds that the search for a new farm director is already underway as Baker vacates the position.

A former player who spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Baker retired from his playing career in 2015 and caught on with the Cubs in their front office that offseason as a special assistant. Baker eventually stepped into the role of mental skills coordinator with Chicago and remained in that role with the club until he departed for Pittsburgh during the 2020-21 offseason to take on his aforementioned role as director of coaching and player development. As Stumpf notes, the Pirates began implementing more individualized development plans for their players under Baker’s leadership.

With Baker now changing roles, the Pirates will need to fill both the farm director role. As Stumpf notes, that’s not the only high-level role that’s as of yet unfilled in Pittsburgh as the club will also need to hire a new director of pro scouting after moving him to a different, unspecified role within baseball operations. Those yet-to-be-named farm and pro scouting directors will join a wave of personnel hires by the Pirates this winter that already includes international scouting director Max Kwan, VP of research and development Kevin Tenenbaum, hitting coach Matt Hague, and assistant pitching coach Brent Strom.

More notes from around the NL Central…

  • Cubs fans received some good news yesterday when Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that right-hander Ben Brown has been cleared for a normal throwing program this offseason. The 25-year-old was acquired by the club at the 2022 trade deadline in the deal that sent right-hander David Robertson to Philadelphia but didn’t make his big league debut until this year. The youngster looked quite good for the Cubs early in the season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work while swinging between the rotation and bullpen. He struck out 28.8% of opponents faced against a walk rate of 8.6% but saw is time in the majors cut short by a stress reaction in his neck that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Chicago reportedly plans to add a starting pitcher to the rotation alongside Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon this winter, which could leave Brown to either compete with Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring or else spend the year in the bullpen.
  • The Cardinals are hiring Matt Pierpont as their director of pitching, as Pierpoint himself noted on X (h/t to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). Pierpont, 33, pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons before catching on with the Mariners as a coach prior to the 2021 season. Since then, he’s risen within the organization to the role of pitching coordinator. Now, he’s been promoted again as he moves on to St. Louis, where he’ll be tasked with working to improve the club’s internal pitching options. Andre Pallante and Sem Robberse are among the young pitchers at or near the major leagues, while top prospect Tink Hence dominated the Double-A level and could also look to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.

Cubs Planning To Add Starting Pitcher In Offseason

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The Cubs are planning to add an established starting pitcher to their rotation this winter, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. The club has Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad in four spots. Per Mooney’s report, adding one more name into that mix would push guys like Ben Brown, Cade Horton, Jordan Wicks and Hayden Wesneski down the depth chart.

“In one sense, you feel like you’re in a solid position because we have a number of young pitchers (who) have had success in the big leagues,” Manager Craig Counsell is quoted as saying in the piece. “Now with all of them, there’s been injuries. And it’s not a big sample as of yet. But that’s also kind of the nature of pitching. It’s the nature of young pitching. So we’re in a good spot in terms of that area of depth. But as we saw this year, it disappeared quickly.”

The quartet of Imanaga, Steele, Taillon and Assad have been the club’s best starters this year, both in terms of quality and quantity. Each of that group has an ERA of 3.41 or lower at the moment and all of them have tossed between 130 and 175 innings on the season thus far.

But as Counsell alluded to, there were also some challenges. Steele made a couple of trips to the injured list, one for a left hamstring strain and another for left elbow tendinitis. The Cubs had picked up a $16.5MM club option to bring back Kyle Hendricks but that ultimately proved to be a misstep. Hendricks struggled badly enough to get moved to the bullpen. He eventually retook a rotation spot but has a 6.28 ERA for the year overall. Wicks is currently on the IL for the third time this year, having gone on the shelf for a left forearm strain and then two separate stints for right oblique strains. Brown hasn’t pitched since June due to a stress reaction in his neck. Horton last pitched in May, getting shut down with a subscapularis strain and suffering a setback while trying to return the mound.

An argument could be made for rolling into 2025 with the same front four, letting the group of Wicks, Brown, Horton and Wesneski fight for the fifth spot. But with so many issues in 2024, adding some more security makes plenty of sense. None of those four are fully established. Wesneski is the only one with more than 81 big league innings pitched, and his 186 frames have been split between the bullpen and rotation. Wicks, Brown and Wesneski all still have options, meaning they could be stretched out in Triple-A if not needed on the big league staff. Horton isn’t yet on the 40-man and doesn’t need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft until December of 2025.

The Cubs also might not have much else on their winter to-do list. Even if Cody Bellinger eventually opts out, the outfield will still have Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and Mike Tauchman, with Alexander Canario, Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcántara and Brennen Davis at Triple-A. The infield has Isaac Paredes, Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch, with Matt Shaw knocking on the door. Miguel Amaya has shown some progress at the plate and Christian Bethancourt can be retained for next year if the Cubs believe in his recent performance. Moises Ballesteros will also be pushing for a job soon.

The bullpen arguably should be a focus but president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer had made it clear he would prefer to not to make free agent splashes there. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, since Hoyer was hired in November of 2020, the club hasn’t given a multi-year deal to any reliever. And of the one-year deals they have given out, the only guy to get more than $5MM was Héctor Neris, who got $9MM.

Unless a change is coming in terms of the approach to bullpen construction, starting pitching is a logical target with the position player group in strong shape. And there should be some powder dry for reinforcements. The club went narrowly over the $237MM competitive balance tax this year, with RosterResource currently pegging their number a bit over $238MM. Next year’s tally is only at $126MM right now. Arbitration raises for guys like Paredes and Steele will certainly add to that number and it will grow significantly if Bellinger decides to stay, but there will still be room for a notable contract.

Hoyer hasn’t played at the top of the market in terms of starting pitching but has given out some mid-market deals. As shown in the MLBTR Contract Tracker again,  Imanaga, Taillon and Marcus Stroman have each received guaranteed between $53MM and $71MM, the largest guarantees the Cubs have given to starting pitchers in the Hoyer era.

This winter’s starting pitching class will be topped by guys like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Blake Snell, assuming Snell stays healthy and opts out of his deal. Signing any of those guys would likely require the Cubs to go to a new level of spending, getting into nine-figure territory. If they want to stay in that Stroman/Taillon/Imanaga tier, they’d probably be debating names like Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Nick Pivetta and others. Hall-of-Fame-bound veterans Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander will be limited to short-term deals since they are both in their 40s and coming off injury-plagued years in 2024.

The trade market will be another option for the Cubs. The White Sox didn’t end up flipping Garrett Crochet at the deadline but could perhaps make him available again in the winter. The Marlins lost almost all their rotation options to injury this year but it’s possible to see them considering deals as the group gets healthier for 2025. Somewhat similarly, the Rays seem to have an abundance of rotation options with Jeffrey Springs, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen returned from long absences, with Shane McClanahan to join them next year. Other possibilities will surely emerge as the winter goes on.

It will be an interesting offseason for the Cubs. Their signing of Swanson heading into 2023 seemed to signal a wish to return to contention after a couple of rebuilding years. They had a solid but unspectacular year in 2023, winning 83 games. They may top that here in 2024, currently at 80-76, but will miss the postseason again. Pressure figures to be high for a club that hasn’t made the postseason in a full campaign since 2018, but a lot of good elements are in place and a few finishing touches could perhaps get them over the hump in 2025.

Cubs Select Christian Bethancourt

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The Cubs announced today that they have selected the contract of catcher Christian Bethancourt. He’ll take the roster spot of fellow backstop Tomás Nido, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee sprain, retroactive to July 25. To open a 40-man roster spot, right-hander Ben Brown was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Bethancourt, 32, began the year with the Marlins but struggled significantly with that club. He hit .159/.198/.268 through 88 plate appearances and was released by the end of June. The Cubs had just two catchers on their 40-man roster in Nido and Miguel Amaya, so they brought Bethancourt over on a minor league deal.

He hasn’t done much to inspire hope that he’s put his offensive woes behind him since then. In seven Triple-A games since signing that pact, he has a line of .192/.222/.192. That’s a tiny sample size but the combination of that with his work with the Marlins earlier this year is fairly bleak.

The Cubs will seemingly be hoping for a bounceback. As recently as 2022, Bethancourt hit .252/.283/.409 in the majors for a wRC+ of 100. But he slipped to .225/.254/.381 and a wRC+ of 74 last year and, as mentioned, has been awful this season.

Even if he doesn’t hit, Bethancourt is fairly well regarded for his work in controlling the running game, though his framing metrics aren’t that strong. The move will at least come with a minimal cost, as the Marlins are on the hook for the majority of his $2.05MM salary, with the Cubs only having to cover the prorated version of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That will be subtracted from what the Fish pay.

As for Brown, he landed on the 15-day injured list June 9. His ailment was initially listed as a neck strain though it was later reported to actually be a stress reaction in his neck. He’s now ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be early August. He has yet to begin a rehab assignment and will presumably need at least a week or two to ramp up whenever he’s cleared to do so. Taking that into consideration, this may not indicate any kind of setback in his recovery.

Injury Notes: Luplow, Brown, Darvish

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Outfielder Jordan Luplow, who signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in March, is done for the year with a right knee ACL tear. The account @Kram207 was among those to relay the info on X.

Luplow has mostly been a small-side platoon guy in his career, as the right-handed hitter has a line of .227/.338/.495 against lefties over several seasons. This year, he had stepped to the plate 254 times at the Triple-A level with a line of .255/.343/.450. His splits were closer to even with the IronPigs, though in a small sample of 184 plate appearances against righties and 70 against lefties.

Perhaps there would have been a path to playing time in the Philadelphia outfield. Johan Rojas struggled enough to get optioned down to the minors. Brandon Marsh and David Dahl are lefties with notable platoon splits. The right-handed counterparts in their platoons are Whit Merrifield and Cristian Pache, who are both struggling.

With this season-ending injury for Luplow, that won’t be an option for the Phils to even consider anymore. Perhaps Edmundo Sosa will be a factor on the grass, since he has a bit of experience out there and played well while Trea Turner was on the IL. The Phils don’t have a lot of holes heading into the July 30 trade deadline but adding an intriguing righty bat to the bench could be one target, especially with Luplow no longer there as a depth option.

Some other notable injury updates from around baseball…

  • The Cubs placed right-hander Ben Brown on the injured list a couple of weeks ago with a neck strain, though subsequent reporting provided the more ominous-sounding diagnosis of a stress reaction in his neck. The timeline was and is murky, but Brown was able to throw from 90 feet recently, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. Brown says that he was told at the time of his diagnosis that he’s already through the worst of his ailment. Montemurro describes the prognosis as a “two- to three-month burnout period,” with the first month being the worst. Brown and Jordan Wicks hit the IL within a week of each other, thinning the Cubs rotation and forcing Kyle Hendricks back into a starting role. The club is 37-41 but that still has them two games out of a playoff spot in the weak NL race. The club will try to ramp Brown up from here as long as there are no symptoms and hopefully get him back into the mix as his body allows. He has a 3.58 ERA on the year through 55 1/3 innings.
  • The Padres are another club in that NL race with some rotation injuries but Yu Darvish will be back tomorrow, with AJ Cassavell of MLB.com relaying the word from manager Mike Shildt on X. Darvish had made 11 starts with a 3.20 ERA before landing on the IL with a left groin strain. He and Joe Musgrove landed on the shelf at the same time, forcing the club to use less experienced hurlers like Randy Vásquez and Adam Mazur. With Mazur posting an ERA of 7.10 in his first four starts and getting optioned recently, the return of Darvish should give the San Diego rotation a boost. The Friars are 41-41 and currently holding the final Wild Card spot in the National League, but there are seven clubs within three games of them.

Cubs’ Ben Brown Diagnosed With Stress Reaction In Neck

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Cubs right-hander Ben Brown was placed on the injured list with a neck strain last week, but the team has now diagnosed him with a more ominous-sounding stress reaction in his neck, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic (X link). It’s expected that Brown will be out longer than the 15-day minimum on his current IL stint, though a firm timetable isn’t yet known.

“We’re still trying to figure out how long and what it means and what he can do,” manager Craig Counsell told the Cubs beat regarding Brown’s updated diagnosis. “It’s a unique injury for a pitcher, so we’re trying to just get some more opinions.”

Acquired from the Phillies in the 2022 trade sending David Robertson to Philadelphia, the now-24-year-old Brown made his big league debut this season. He’s been quite good in 15 appearances with the Cubs — eight of them starts. In 55 1/3 frames, Brown has pitched to a 3.58 ERA with a terrific 28.8% strikeout rate, a solid 8.6% walk rate and a 38.9% grounder rate. Brown has only yielded 0.81 homers per nine frames. He’d recently stepped into a consistent rotation role — his last four outings were starts — and posted a 3.60 ERA with a 25-to-6 K/BB ratio in 20 innings.

Brown’s injury dovetails with the return of fellow rookie Jordan Wicks, who was out for six weeks due to a forearm strain. Also 24 years old, the left-handed Wicks came on in long relief of Brown when Brown exited after four innings. He tossed 3 1/3 frames that day and held the Reds to one run in that time. With Brown shelved, Wicks seems likely to step into the No. 5 spot in the rotation behind Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad.

Wicks made seven starts last season and barely kept his rookie eligibility intact. He’s up to 61 innings in his big league career (26 1/3 of them this year) and owns a 4.43 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 43.3% ground-ball rate. Wicks tossed 126 innings last season and, after missing six weeks of the current year, shouldn’t need to worry about soaring past that workload. But given his own injury earlier this season and some questionable depth in the rotation — particularly in light of veteran Kyle Hendricks’ struggles — it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cubs look into some rotation help at next month’s deadline, assuming the team is still in contention for a Wild Card spot. Chicago is currently 7.5 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central but just one game out in the NL Wild Card chase.

Cubs Promote Ben Brown, Place Justin Steele On 15-Day IL

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2:34PM: The Cubs officially announced Brown’s promotion and Steele’s IL placement.  Steele’s time on the injured list retroactively begins on March 29, and his injury was designated as a left hamstring strain.

12:59PM: The Cubs will call up right-hander Ben Brown from Triple-A today, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray (via X).  Brown will likely take the roster spot of Justin Steele, who is ticketed for the 15-day injured list after suffering a hamstring injury on Opening Day.

It would also appear that Brown will take over Steele’s place in the rotation for the time being, with Brown lined up to make his MLB debut on either Tuesday or Wednesday when the Cubs host the Rockies.  It will be quite the moment for 24-year-old Brown, whose pro career began as a 33rd-round draft pick for the Phillies in 2017 when injuries contributed to his fall down the board.  As noted by Baseball America’s scouting report, Brown has had to overcome a burst appendix, a Tommy John surgery, an elbow strain, and some time on the Covid-related injured list before finally getting healthy in 2022 and getting some extended time on the mound.

That season brought about another change for Brown, when Philadelphia dealt him to the Cubs at the trade deadline in the David Robertson deal.  Making his Triple-A debut in 2023, Brown posted a 5.33 ERA in 72 2/3 innings for Iowa before missing about a month with a lat problem.

A 15.8% walk rate was the biggest factor in Brown’s Triple-A struggles, and he has occasionally experienced some control problems in past years as well.  The strikeout potential is evident, however, as Brown has a 31.1% strikeout rate over his 297 career minor league innings, and both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline give 60-grades to his fastball and curve, with Pipeline adding a 60 to his slider as well.  Clearly Brown has plenty of stuff, though both scouting outlets wonder if his future might ultimately be as a reliever if he can’t stay healthy or deliver more consistent control.

Until that decision has to be made, the Cubs will see what Brown can do as a starter.  Between Steele’s hamstring issue and Jameson Taillon already on the IL with back problems, Chicago has had to made some early dips in its rotation depth, which allowed both Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks to make the Opening Day rotation.  Assad and Wicks have limited MLB experience, and Brown and NPB import Shota Imanaga have never pitched in the majors, leaving Kyle Hendricks as far and away the most experienced healthy starter in Wrigleyville.  Veteran Drew Smyly was slotted for bullpen work rather than the starting rotation, and it seems like the Cubs will keep Smyly in that role even with Steele now sidelined.

Central Notes: Cubs, Royals, India, Twins

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The Cubs have received interest on young right-handers Ben Brown and Hayden Wesneski, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Rosenthal notes that the club is “not necessarily inclined” to move either youngster, but could become more open to it if they’re successful in adding a veteran starter this offseason. Chicago has been connected to NPB lefty Shota Imanaga on the free agent market and Guardians righty Shane Bieber on the trade market, among others.

Wesneski, 26, was a sixth-round pick by the Yankees in the 2019 draft and was shipped to the Cubs at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for sidearming right-hander Scott Effross. Wesneski made his MLB debut with the Cubs that September and impressed down the stretch, with a 2.18 ERA and a 25% strikeout rate in 33 innings of work across six appearances. Wesneski went on to win the club’s fifth starter job out of camp in 2023. That decision proved to be an ill-fated one, as he struggled to a 5.09 ERA and 5.90 FIP across eight starts before being demoted to Triple-A. After spending a month in an up-and-down role shuttling between Triple-A and the majors, Wesneski settled into a multi-inning relief role in late June and posted a 3.79 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate across his final 22 appearances (35 2/3 innings).

Brown, 24, has yet to make his major league debut after being acquired from the Phillies in exchange for David Robertson at the same deadline the Cubs landed Wesneski. Upon acquiring Brown, the Cubs immediately promoted him to Double-A where he held his own, with a 4.06 ERA and 32.1% strikeout rate in seven starts down the stretch. Brown returned to the Double-A level for his first four starts of the 2023 season and dominated to a microscopic 0.45 ERA while posting an incredible 39% strikeout rate across 20 innings of work. That success saw Brown earn a promotion to the Triple-A level, where he struggled for the first time in his time with Chicago. While he struck out 31.1% of batters faced, the right-hander’s ERA ballooned to 5.33 in 72 2/3 innings of work as he walked a whopping 15.8% of batters faced. If Brown is able to keep those control issues in check, he figures to be a big league rotation option as soon as next season.

While Wesneski and Brown both come with flaws, it’s hardly a surprise that pitching-needy clubs would be interested in either youngster’s services. After all, controllable starting pitching is among the most sought-after commodities in the league, and a deal with the Cubs involving a lower-level arm like Wesneski or Brown could be more affordable than trading for one of the established regulars who have found their names in the rumor mill this offseason like Marlins lefty Jesus Luzardo or any number of young Mariners right-handers.

More from around MLB’s Central divisions…

  • The Royals have gone on something of a spending spree this offseason, adding Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo to their rotation, Chris Stratton and Will Smith in the bullpen, and Hunter Renfroe to their outfield mix. That’s a combined outlay of more than $100MM in guaranteed money, and the additions have left them with a projected payroll of $112MM for the 2024 campaign according to RosterResource. That being said, GM J.J. Picollo indicated to reporters (including Anne Rogers of MLB.com) that the club has likely done most of its heavy lifting for the offseason. Picollo noted that the club “would be content” with the additions they’ve made this offseason if they were to enter Spring Training with their current group of players, though Picollo did note that the club is going to continue to explore ways to strengthen its depth throughout the remainder of the offseason.
  • MLB Network’s Jon Morosi indicates that trade talks surrounding Reds second baseman Jonathan India “remain active,” and that multiple teams are engaged with Cincinnati on the infielder. Recent reporting indicated that the club feels no additional urgency to part with India or another member of its crowded infield mix even after adding another bat to the logjam in the form of Jeimer Candelario, who signed with the Reds on a three-year deal earlier this month. The 27-year-old started his career off with a bang by winning the NL Rookie of the Year award back in 2021 but has been an essentially league average bat in the two years since, slashing .246/.333/.394 across 960 trips to the plate since the start of the 2022 campaign.
  • The Twins look to be parting ways with a longtime fixture in their front office, as Darren Wolfson of Skor North and Brandon Warne of Access Twins report that vice president Rob Antony will not have his contract renewed by the club when it expires at the end of the current calendar year. Antony first joined the Twins organization back in 1988 and has worked in baseball operations for the club since 1996, including a stint as assistant GM from 2007 to 2021. Antony is perhaps most notable for his brief stint as acting GM of the Twins in 2016, when he bridged the gap between Terry Ryan and Derek Falvey as the club’s head of baseball operations.
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