Almost the entirety of the Cubs' rotation is injured right now. Justin Steele, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon. All hurt. A moment ago Edward Cabrera was hurt along with them but he's back now. Being without those guys hurts this team, because what the hell is left? Cabrera's playing hurt essentially, he's got a 5 ERA because he's not in ideal condition right now. Imanaga's got a 4.26 ERA and has gotten lit up more consistently than not. Colin Rea ain't it. Javier Assad's fine but there shouldn't be that much hinging on him.
And so the most important guy in this rotation, as PCA hits cycles and Suzuki and Bregman hit 'em out...is Ben Brown. Career swingman, never got the opportunities, now a key starter with a 1.74 ERA and a .968 WHIP. Brown is your 2026-standard hard throwing young phenom, so you can guess why he hasn't been fully healthy the last few years. But right now he's basically all the Cubs have. And...last year, at least they had Cade Horton cracking the rotation and becoming a star. Before they had Steele going on a three month tear every year. In the Maddon/Ross days they had the depth to keep throwing solid choices out there the whole year. And now it's 'if Ben Brown doesn't nail a start we're screwed'. That's not good, man.
It's not due to lack of trying, really. The Cubs draft well, they sign well, they put together a rotation that, when healthy, can work. The issue is there wasn't enough depth this year, or, more specifically, the depth is just bad. Ideally the Colin Reas and Javier Assads are supposed to provide solid help in the event of a full rotation cratering, and they've just added to it.
Sucks, cause the team's still hitting well. PCA heard everyone saying he's not as good of a hitter as forecast and started going off at the plate, with 13 homers and 35 RBIs. Suzuki and Busch have been heating up as of late, that's always a good thing. I think it's evident that Hoerner and Happ have cooled down but with the rest of the team doing well it's not much of an issue. Carson Kelly was not a one-year thing, the team's defense is great across the board, and at the very least the batting depth is there. But in this division, it means nothing if the pitching isn't great, and...considering Daniel Palencia's hurt again and Caleb Thielbar probably has to close now, it's probably going to get worse.
The Cubs are in 3rd, trying to stay out of fourth. This week they have to play the Rockies, who honestly have a more concrete rotation schematic right now, and then the Jays, and they have to hope that the Pirates don't keep surging enough to strand them in 4th. A competitive year is still possible for the Cubs, but if we're waiting for the pitchers to come back it might be a longshot.
Coming Tomorrow- The Rangers have had a lot of problems this year. Luckily...they have a solution.
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