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.
“Lower back issue” aka he sucks & they need a break from him
“Kyle, take a couple days off, and get back to us in two weeks. Go visit your family, decompress.”
Even if that’s true. Lumbar back pain is no joke. I’m not even 40 and I’ve got severe pain in my lower back. Not to go too much off topic but long story short, the cartilage that’s supposed to be between each vertebrae is gone in 2 of my vertebrae on my lower/lumbar/ back.
I wish you all the best, Logjammer. Try to see a couple 2, 3 Docs for a few opinions, but do everything you can to avoid back surgery. You may need to, and I understand lumbar issues, but that stuff gets wonky af if they don’t do it properly. Good luck homie!
An inversion table is my go-to. It’s a game changer.
I’ve had bad surgery for other things(tumor removal) and the other back procedures I’ve had was to numb the nerves and then later burn the nerves. Although not technically surgery. I’m under Anesthesia. I’m grateful that I don’t need to under the knife for those procedures
I only sleep on water beds or trampolines. Sex only in a hammock.
Try to envision the SNL skit with Chris Farley where he’s at a nice restaurant and they tell him he’s not eating real butter. His facial expression goes from happy to mad as hell and he says “why you son of a b…
My point is this. Water beds still exist?
Logjammer,
I believe you, my friend has three herniated disks that eventually will need surgery. He lost 100 pounds over the course of 2 and a half years to help out his back, but he still gets back spasms, and he was 26 when he got hurt, and he’s 36 now, so yeah not even 40 and he has that to deal with.
A phantom IL visit was highly expected for the Professor unless they actually had reason for a real IL visit.
Kyle is one of my favorite players. I think he will get a couple more chances to pick in the show before the season and possibly his career is over.
Amazing how much better the Cubs just got
Yes sir….16 straight days now…need healthy guys and guys that can go more than three innings.
They can’t do any worse than Hendricks at this point. Not even if they just pick curtain #3 with no idea who is behind it.
Aww Smyly isn’t smiling right about now. Go Dodgers.
Stupidest-trying-to-be-clever comment of the day.
BTW, 13 teams have better records than the #%$^&* Dodgers.
Trust me when I say that Dodger fans are far and away the most claseless individuals… (per capita)
Of course there are good ones, but this guy ain’t it. SB is just a cringe-worthy troll that is, at best, ignored.
Why would we trust you?
You may choose not to, and find out for yourself.
all publicity is good publicity.
There goes my trade idea of Smyly and Hendricks for Cronenworth.
Why would we want Cronenworth? He hasn’t been good over the past 2 years, always gets hurt & his contract sucks.
This is the kind of crap I used to get in my comments section when I wrote. I’m a Cubs fan but I learned to hate my own cuz of takes like this.
I always thought being a Cubs fan was more about self hate but hey what do I know.
Cubs fans are the worst!!
And here comes the ankle biters.
“No tha…”
Click.
(Dial-tone)
It hasn’t gone anywhere, Uncle. It’s still stuck in your head. Not really sure of your thought process on that one other than your emotional, gut reaction to bad starts by Hendricks and Smyly.
Give me one valid baseball reason for the Cubs to trade for almost any guy that is signed through 2030, age 36, with no really viable position.
I understand the emotion of throwing the garbage out—but you need to be realistic about it, please.
You guys don’t watch Cronie a lot, I can tell. Dude is awesome. Plays an All-Star 2nd base, and has handled being thrust into a 1B role rather well. His defense is spectacular, and his bat can get streaky. He had an off ’23, and we can’t discount that, and if he has one blemish it’s that he is perceived as being overpaid. Whatever the case, he’s not getting shipped for 2 old and broken arms from any team. Cheers fellas
Pretty sure the Padres aren’t interested in two old dudes that are breaking down. Also Crownenworth has more value as a second baseman, something we have covered with Nico.
Amen, Gwynning…my point being that the Cubs can’t flip two guys with contracts expiring now for a guy (as good as he may be) signed another six-seven years at positions the Cubs are solid at. And, where he may be steps ahead of Busch at first now, he doesn’t profile as a big middle of the order guy that you want from your 1B.
I do my best to keep Uncle from these rash, emotional outputs, like trading Wisdom for hot dog buns….but his keyboard seems to be always on so I just to counter balance him with some minor realism.
My thinking was this:
Smyly and Hendricks make 27 million on expiring deals.
Cronenworth is making 12 million a year until 2030. Cubs save 15 million this year for deadline deals.
Pads save 72 million on Jake’s deal.
Cubs payroll will be coming down the next few years, 12 million is peanuts.
Cubs need a LH bat that can play IF. Jake can play and fill in at 4 positions.
Until they got hurt that is. Sounds more like the Cubs are willing to just dump them.
Anybody who wants Wisdom around doesn’t have a base in realism. That’s borderline psychotic. And the little red tag tells me when to reply.
And I defy anybody to tell me this is a bad deal for either team.
It’s a terrible deal for my Pads, Unc. Go back and read why you like Cronie, and we feel the same. Smyly and Hendricks would probably be DFA’d immediately if this trade were to magically transpire. How is that even halfway sensible (for us)? Cronie is a line-up mainstay at the 3 spot, and plays anywhere on the dirt remarkably well. I understand why you’d want him, but he ain’t moving for pocket lint and chewed gum.
It’s not like we’re prospect less over here.
It’s a bad deal for the Padres—-they hope to contend this year and they get two guys that can’t help them.
It’s a bad deal for the Cubs—they get $72M in contract for a guy that doesn’t help them now nor in the future….and that future is another six years. Big picture–who would you rather have: Hoerner or Cronenworth? Busch or Cronenworth? Shaw or Cronenworth? It just isn’t a fit at this time.
Bad deal for both. The Cubs are deep enough that I think that they can survive whether Smyly or Hendricks ever pitches another inning.
To make a trade for that $15 for the deadline deal—I get your thought process—but if they Cubs are that close at that time of the season, the money will come from somewhere without costing 70+ more the next six years.
It’s a bad trade for both teams.
The Padres do not need pitching and they are competitive right now, they also need Cronenworth. The Cubs on the other don’t need Cronenworth and the Cubs may not have a ton of money committed long term but that changes quick!
Ok Uncle, then we can critique or accept a broader-scoped trade, sure. As presented (Smyly & Hendro for Cronie) …it is a bad deal with no wings. Prospects don’t interest “us” as much as other teams; “we” do very well at drafting & scouting and currently have a rather well stocked Farm as is. My Pads are in full “win-now mode” and moving a line-up mainstay won’t be easy to offset for your Cubs. No offense, just relatively benign truth.
Cubs fan do not been concern or worried you got Jed Hoyer and 8 million dollar year manager Craig C