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.
No nice things
So..broken neck?
Anyone heard if Caleb Kilian is ever coming back?
Shoulder strain that should keep him out until after AS break.
I hope not.
He looked good in ST
OMG.
And now Jordan Wicks has departed with an injury. We don’t need robo umps in MLB, we need robo pitchers.
Wicks made it through 1 inning today. I hate being a Cubs fan LOL.
I imagine this will end his season. Just hope it doesn’t impact him in seasons ahead.
The way things are going, maybe Cubs should be sellers at the deadline.
Nico Hoerner would look really good in Dodger Blue and is a perfect fit into that line up.
Cubs are definitely not in a very good situation to be sellers, Bellinger is an option but his contract would require a lot of creativity to move. Happ has a full no-trade clause, he’s a businessman so I would suspect he would require a “reassignment” bonus if he were to waive his NTC. Maybe the Cubs could get something for Neris maybe Tailon as well but the returns would be minimal.
The Cubs honestly would be better suited targeting players with multiple years of control and try to sneak into the wild card vs muddying up the waters with more guys who could require 40 man roster moves next season.
An option could be to grab Suarez from Arizona and see if he could find his swing in Chicago. Wouldn’t cost the Cubs anything but money. Then turn their attention to controllable young relievers. Deal Canario, Davis and Kilian, to a lesser extent ship off Madrigal, Bote and Mastrobuoni and replace all them with relievers.
I think Happ would be willing to go away for an extra option year of some sort, maybe a mutual option with a buyout that would amount to a bonus for being traded. And in that scenario I’d expect that the Cubs would pay most of the rest of Happ’s 2024 salary.
Seattle?
I strongly doubt Happ would want to push his free agency back a yeah. I mean maybe a mutual option with a buy out but really wanting an extra year tacked on his deal, delaying free agency even further I can’t see.
As much as Cub fans dislike Happ, he’s a solid player. He’s off to a bit of a slow start this season but he’s a pretty solid 3 WAR player.
Yeah the mutual option is just a way to have a deferred bonus.
I’m wondering if Happ would approve a trade to the Reds or Guardians. Cubs would likely have to eat money but would also increase the value of the return.
Truth be told, and it’s nothing against Seattle, but there is no way I’m waiving my NTC to play there. They have a difficult travel schedule and it’s a difficult park to hit.
Reds are not paying but he would thrive there.
We have the highest paid and most ineffective manager.
Look at all he didn’t do with the Brewers…
Yup managers don’t make that much difference and certainly aren’t the bucks he’s getting
Is this similar to Prince Fielders injuries?