4:09pm: It’s a Grade 2 oblique strain for Wicks, according to Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. Given that diagnosis, it appears all but certain the southpaw will miss longer than the 15 day minimum, although a specific timetable for his return remains unclear.
12:39pm: The Cubs announced that Jordan Wicks has been placed on the 15-day injured list, as the southpaw is dealing with a right oblique strain. Right-hander Keegan Thompson was called up from Triple-A Iowa to take Wicks’ spot on the active roster.
An IL move seemed very likely after Wicks lasted only 1 2/3 innings before being removed in yesterday’s start against the Cardinals. As Wicks told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters, “I just felt tightness in my right side after making a pitch. I didn’t think a whole lot of it….When I knew it persisted a couple of pitches in a row, I knew something wasn’t right.”
Given how oblique injuries can be tricky to fully overcome, Wicks could potentially be back in just 15 days if he has avoided a serious train, or he might be facing an absence of several months if the discomfort continues to linger. As Wicks told Stebbins and company, the injury is particularly “frustrating” since Friday marked only his second appearance following a six-week IL stint due to a forearm strain.
Amidst all the injuries, Wicks has pitched pretty well over 28 total innings this season. The left-hander has a 4.18 ERA with above-average strikeout, hard-contact and walk rates, though that latter 7.8BB% is only in the 54th percentile of all pitchers. Those are still numbers the Cubs will happily take from the second-year pitcher, as Wicks has capably stepped into the rotation amidst injuries to other starters. With Wicks and Ben Brown both out, the Cubs again have a rotation vacancy behind Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, and Javier Assad.
That fifth starter’s role could be filled by a familiar face in Kyle Hendricks, as manager Craig Counsell indicated to Stebbins and other reporters that “I think it looks like” Wicks’ injury might pave the way to Hendricks’ return to the rotation. Hendricks was moved to the pen last month after he was rocked for a 10.57 ERA over his first seven starts and 30 2/3 innings of the season, but he seemingly settled down in posting a 3.14 ERA in 14 1/3 frames as a reliever. Hendricks was quickly called into action yesterday after Wicks’ early exit, and delivered 4 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Chicago could also explore stretching Hayden Wesneski back out to handle a starter’s workload, though Wesneski has also emerged as a quality arm in the Cubs’ bullpen.
See you at the end of August.
2 Larry’s 1 post
Very disappointing season. Same issues that the core went through in 2017-2021.
Just get use to last place. Hey ya had one good year out of the last 120 years that ought to hold ya for awhile.
Same ankle biter.. Same worn out material..
He gets cocky when the Cards reach .500.
Cards have won more in the last 20 years than the cubs have won in the last 120 years
Cards have won more Central Division titles than the rest of the league put together
Are you having your stroke in installments?
But like Fred Sanford he unfortunately hasn’t seen Elizabeth yet.
He was awfully quiet last year. He’s making up for lost time. Same S, different season.
And he never gets his facts straight. Cubs have won three World Series in 120 years. Cardinals have won just two in the last 20 years.
Also, he conveniently left out the Astros winning Central Division titles.
Cards have had one bad year in the last 80 the cubs had one good year in the last 120
Hope that keeps ya warm at night. Cause I’m sure you had Imanaga nightmares.
You’re gonna be disappointed in him also once he gets around the league once. Right now he’s a fluke never thrown a complete game and only pitches once every 10 days. You can have him
And it’s going to be a different game when the winds blowing out instead of blowing in. I wasn’t impressed at all
Just imagine if the Cubs front office didn’t try to build a bullpen out of guys that nobody else wanted every year.
Even last year at the deadline, the Cubs had a clear and obvious need for depth in the bullpen. Jed added Jose Cuas, and he was and still is a disaster.
I don’t understand how they thought this bullpen was sufficient to head into this season. Talk about a complete disconnect from the being in touch with your team.
Yes but they did over pay for a mediocre manager
Good teams make managers and coaches look good. The Cubs are a seriously flawed team right now. Similarly to NFL head coach Sean Payton. Not so good with the Broncos. With that Saints team behind Drew Brees and others pretty darn good.
That’s literally what lots of teams do. Spending a lot of money on your bullpen is not necessarily correlated with success. The Brewers bullpen is full of cast offs pitching amazing: Megill (Twins), Bryan Hudson (several teams including the Cubs), Jared Koenig (independent leagues),Hoby Milner(several teams Phillies) and on and on.
The Cubs just need better development and a smarter front office. Their payroll is almost double some of these teams that are better than them. It cracks me up to hear Cubs fans complain about payroll, which I know you’re not doing but many do. Identify a distinguishing trait or something you can tweak to get results, send them to the pitching lab and viola. Several teams do this well.
Somebody said before the season the Cubs Bullpen was insufficient and needed at least 1 more arm in the pen. Who was it…….Hmmmmmmm. It’ll come to me.
Uncle—I figured it out—-it is the same Einstein that told everyone that “all Morel needs is more reps” and acquiring Tyson Miller for a 27 year old career minor league, not listed in the Cubs top 50 prospects was a “stupid trade”.
I guess when you wake up tomorrow morning and look at the box scores, both you and Yan Gomes will be batting around .160.
And you can join the Cubs bullpen with that sore arm you got patting yourself on the back.
LOL. .160? Cmon that’s a little light Mike. I hit more than Gomes this year. Which by the way I didn’t see coming either I’ll admit. Who didn’t want to sign Happ to an extension? Who wants to let the young P’s play and lose Hendricks and Smyly? Who hates Madrigal, Wisdom and Mastrobuoni and wants them gone? Ah what’s the use they’re just going to sit on their hands. Egads there’s even talk of Hendricks coming back. I give up.
“Who hates Madrigal, Wisdom and Mastrobuoni”
You actually hate people because you dont think they deserve a spot on your favorite baseball team? You have mental issues.
I could care less what kind of record the Cubs put together between now and the trade deadline. The hard truth is, the 2024 season is over. At best, they put together a run and sneak in to the last WC spot, only to lose. Since a WS appearance is not feasible this year, then selling any of the few tradeable pieces they have makes sense (they should have sold last year too). Barista Happ should be first out the door, he never should have gotten the ridiculous extension. And right now, since Bellinger is 50/50 for opting out, I’d send him to any team that want’s to give a top 100 prospect. I love Mike Tauchman, he’s a pro and I hope he’s interested in coaching for the Cubs after his playing days are over, but I’d send him out too. Honestly, other than PCA, Wicks, Assad, Wesnewski, Steele, Hoerner, Brown, Hodge, Little and maybe Morel and Busch, I’d make the entire roster available. It’s time to bring up the prospects at Iowa and Tennesee and let them learn. Punt on 24, get ready for 25.
Happ and Taillon would be at the top of my personal list. Now, what type of return can be expected? I would expect not much based on performance so far and more importantly the contract those players carry. If anything get some additional salary relief heading into 2025. Possibly, a new GM is on the way heading into the off season.
So you do care at least a little bit?
They don’t have anyone that will bring much of a return. Happ has a no trade clause. No one is giving up a top 100 prospect for Bellinger on his contract and his slightly above average pproduction.His contract offsets any value he has. Tauchmann maybe brings a lottery ticket. They just don’t have the pieces that teams bid on.
My moves:
Trade Happ then bring up Canario.
Trade Tauchman bring up Caissie
Convert Busch to 3B. Start Bellinger at 1B, Send Morel to the Minors as he just sucks right now.
Pitching staff leave alone as there are too many injuries going on and they need to absorb innings.
Wicks might want to consider working out and stretching occasionally.
Players with No Trade protection get dealt every single year. I’m not saying Happ would 100% approve a trade but he would likely just force a reassignment bonus.
With that said, you are correct, the Cubs have little to deal. The Cubs would be best served, at the moment, being buyers and dealing some of the prospects they have for players who are controllable beyond this season. To me, an immediate name that comes to mind is Ryan McMahon who has 2 1/2 years remaining. The price would be steep given the Rockies “have no intention” of dealing him but the Rockies also were not going to deal Arenado. Me being a lazy thinker also would say Miller from Oakland and be willing to part with Horton to get it done.
McMahon isn’t great with the bat and below average on defense at this point. I would not trade for hm. We are better off trying to grab Paredes or Cameniro from the Rays for 3B. I like Busch a lot and think he would be a good 1B for a while. I think he will get even better than what he is right now. I’d trade Happ and go get a closer and a catcher. Get controllable assets for the farm pieces we trade who have big upside offensively.
Why stop there? We should trade for Jackson Holiday.
And in what world is McMahon below average on defense? He had 17 DRS and 11 OAA last season and double digits has been his norm for the past three seasons.
Saying he is below average because of 500 innings this year is like saying Nico and Dansby are below average, it’s clearly not the case.
“in what world is McMahon below average on defense?”
Um, this one? You know the current season’s world where he is below average on defense.
“Why stop there? We should trade for Jackson Holiday.”
Is that supposed to be sarcasm because trying to land Paredes or Cameniro is somehow out of the question? Great post!
Except he’s not. Not even this season is he playing below average.
And yes, trying to land the third best over all prospect in all of baseball is out of the question and trying to land a pre-arbitration third baseman that was a 4 WAR player in his first full season seems pretty unlikely as well.
Up until yesterday he was actually below average with OAA and currently he is at 0. On top of that, this season is the only season he has ever had where his WRC+ isn’t below average..
No, it isn’t out of the question at all. If they love Paredes they can keep him and Caminero could be available. If they want to move Caminero to their MLB club it frees up Paredes for a trade.
Well Cubs fans this is what we get when you make 1 decent addition (Imanaga) and 1 bad (Neris) to a pitching staff that fell apart late last season.
And please let’s not even talk about the lack of offense. Busch was a nice gamble but you added zero to a punchless offense.
Back to the same old BS FROM CUBS OWNERSHIP
This is a very shortsighted response to the Cubs issues.
There is no need to talk about the Cubs rotation, it’s been very good and weathered injuries as well as anyone could hope for.
People keep saying the same dumb stuff about the bullpen. Do a little critical thinking, about how the bullpen was supposed to be built, Alzolay, fantastic last season, Merryweather, fantastic last season, that’s two high leverage relievers the Cubs were supposed to have. Leiter, fantastic last season and was very good this year prior to being overused (like last season) add Neris as a fourth high leverage reliever. Smyly was very effective at long relief last season, as was Wesneski, Wesneski also gave a high leverage arm. Young budding arms were next, Brown and Little with Assad or Wicks providing even more depth with change of look option Cuas, who’s again was effective last year. Coming into the season, the bullpen should have been an area of strength but injuries to Alzolay and Merryweather derailed it and has caused mismatches all season long.
The offense’s biggest issue is guys not developing. Morel has been awful at third but has to be one of the most unlucky hitters in the game. Busch has been okay in his role but Amaya and Gomes have been been basically instant outs. Counsell has been trying to/forced to let guys work through their issues and find rhythm but so many are struggling at the same time. Mervis was a disaster, PCA isn’t hitting, Amaya and Gomes the same, Madrigal wasn’t hitting at all and Swanson came back from injury ice cold. Why CC is refusing to learn from Ross’s mistakes last year is beyond me, the team plays better when Nico leads off. He hits better and creates a ton of pressure on defenses when he gets on with his speed. Not to mention he’s a fantastic base runner.
With Merryweather’s injury history, he would be a hard one to count on a major amount of innings.
I think we can all finally agree Hoyer is the architect of this team right? It is his mistakes that have lead to this. It’s obvious the Cubs want to play under the Tax level. So he’s the guy who signed guys that are basically blocking all his good young prospects. Failing to take a clue from the best two GM’s in town right now in Ryan Poles and Kyle Davidson. They have both added exciting young talent and cleared out the rubble that was in their way. Davidson has to deal with a Salary floor so he has to sign some talent but none to long term dumb deals like Hoyer. White Sox and Bulls management is tragic right now and Hoyer is fast becoming irrelevant. His insistence on hanging on to marginal talent like Madrigal, Mastrobuoni, Wisdom and Tauchman and struggling P’s Cuas, K. Thompson, Riley Thompson, Franklin and I could go on. he’s done a good job of rebuilding the Farm System and a horrible job of weaponizing it to his advantage to the point of stupidity. Maybe it’s time for ole Jed to move up to an advisory role and let Hawkins take over. Although I’m still not exactly sure what it is he does exactly.Somebody has to start clearing the trash, Moving out the road blocks and making room for the Farm to move along. Right now I’m seeing guys at South Bend and Tennessee that are stuck behind guys like Dan Straily, Cole Roederer, Brennen Davis, Strumpf, Hill and guys they have no intention of ever using. Look the attic is cluttered, Time to hire somebody to clean it out and fill it up again with useful stuff, Or at least stuff you think you can sell to buy better stuff. In other words it’s time for Ricketts to make the call. You gave a guy 8 million bucks a year to manage a partial garbage dump. At least get the guy something he can use.
I disagree on many points, first and foremost, I blame CC for not having a read on this team.
This team is different and significantly better when Nico is leading off but CC continues to throw Tauchman out there, why? Because he takes more pitches? Nico plays better when leading off, runs the bases better, steals bags and puts pressure on defenses.
The bullpen is certainly flawed but that isn’t an excuse for pushing the wrong buttons so often. We do not have Devon Williams or Josh Hader which means you have to have a better pulse on your pitchers. You have to change looks and speeds and call pitches that guys can throw for strikes. Relievers have to be aggressive in the zone, ours are not. If you’re changing looks, you can get away with being aggressive in the zone because hitters have to adjust. If you keep missing, you’re allowing hitters more opportunities.
Thompson is done in Chicago. He has zero confidence and you can see if every time he pitches. He presses far too much. It sucks because he is talented and has good stuff. It’s just he unravels and he isn’t going to get confidence back with the Cubs coaching staff.
Hoyer right now needs to address third base. I’m sure the Diamondbacks will let Suarez go for next to nothing. Make that happen and trade for a high leverage reliever now to take some pressure off the pen.
So you’re willing to let Hoyer slide for wasting 27 million on Hendricks and Smyly, Not to mention Mancini and Barnhart, Giving Happ and extension when the smart play was to offer him a QO and take the draft pick and give Canario or Davis a route to playing time, Continually making stupid plays bringing in his personal favorite vets over draft picks and generally clogging up a Farm system that might be the best in baseball? Well, you’re going to have 20 more draft picks and maybe some undrafted signings in a couple weeks to add to an already constipated System. What are you gonna do with them? Counsell has been here 2 and 1/2 months and he hasn’t made great decisions either but I’m willing to let him slide for now until I see what happens in the 2nd half. Hoyer needs to move up. he’s basically done a good job but it’s time to bring in the guy to get them from Point A to Point B Because Point A is broken. I can’t let it slide. It’s painful to watch quite frankly.
Plus to expound on Counsell I don’t think for a minute he’s happy with the crap bench they’ve given him. I doubt he wanted Keegan Thompson back, Or he ever wants to see Mastrobuoni, Madrigal or Wisdom around anymore and quite frankly Tauchman’s value will never be higher than it is right now So don’t blame Counsell for playing the dung they keep handing him again and again and again.
I never wanted the Cubs to sign Smyly. He was found money two years ago and they should have been happy with that.
Hendricks pitched well last season and the rotation is full of inexperienced pitchers. Complaining about bringing Hendricks back is dumb. So is complaining about extending Happ. He’s a quality major leaguer.
The fact that we have Busch, Morel, PCA, Amaya in the line up at any given time cements the fact Happ was a wise extension.
“The best farm system in baseball” is still 1-2 years away from producing notable talent. Caissie could get his feet wet, PCA shouldn’t be up, Busch needs to be left alone at first, Morel needs to DH, Tauchman needs to be the fourth outfielder. Amaya has to be rode at catcher because he cannot be optioned.
Also, you complain about certain guys in AAA holding positions over guys in AA, when the simple FACT of the matter is, when a more highly regarded prospect EARNS a promotion, they will get it. None of the players you’re complaining about are holding guys back for promotion. They are not. When a player earns a promotion, they get promoted.
MrSeptember must not follow Iowa or Tennessee